Early trials of Sputnik V vaccine from Russia among children aged 12 to 17 have started in Moscow. 100 volunteers have been recruited who haven’t been infected with coronavirus and don’t have health issues that would prevent them from getting the disease. Deputy Mayor Anastasia Rakova said the youths will receive a small dose of Sputnik V than what is usually given to adults.
The new trial comes as Russia faces a good flow in coronavirus infections and struggles to ramp up its low vaccine uptake. Last week, only 23 million people, of the country’s 146-million population, have received at least one shot of a covid vaccine.
Meanwhile, the number of daily new virus cases have doubled over the past month or more than that, going from roughly 9,000 per day in June to over 24,000 this week. On Monday, Russia reported 24,353 new cases and 654 deaths.
Russian authorities have registered over 5.6 million confirmed cases of the virus and 138,579 deaths.
