Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 Vaccine Also More Than 90% Effective

Russia's Sputnik V vaccine — designed to fight the COVID-19 illness — is also more than 90% effective, according to a Monday statement from a representative of the country's health ministry, reports Reuters.

RELATED: RUSSIA BEGINS MANUFACTURING ITS NEW COVID-19 VACCINE

Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine more than 90% effective

The health ministry representative cited data collated from vaccinations of the public — instead of an ongoing trial, reports Reuters.

The Russian represenative's comments followed another statement earlier on Monday from vaccine developers BioNTech and Pfizer Inc, who said their experimental COVID-19 vaccine showed a more than 90% effectiveness rate.

"We are responsible for monitoring the effectiveness of the Sputnik V vaccine among citizens who have received it as part of the mass vaccination programme," said Oksana Drapkina, director of a research institute for the health industry, in a statement.

"Based on our obvservations, its effectiveness is also more than 90%. The appearance of another effective vaccine — this is good news for everyone," said Drapkina, Reuters reports.

Russia to publish results of human trials later this month

Notably, Russia has rolled out its vaccine candidate for domestic use before it completed its late stage-trials. Earlier on Monday, the director of Moscow's Gamaleya Institute Alexander Gintsburg — said he welcomed the news about Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

"In the near future we expect to publish interim results of the post-registration trial of the vaccine Sputnik V, the so-called Phase III trials. I am sure that its effectiveness level will also be high," said Gintsburg.

Russia is preparing to publish preliminary results of an ongoing large-scale human trial called Phase III later this month. As of writing, the country is testing its vaccine on 40,000 people in Moscow, the nation's capital.

While the U.S. is edging closer to a viable vaccine — after several false-starts and confusion about experimental drugs endorsed by the current President — it seems other major nations like Russia and the U.K. are working equally hard to deliver their people to a time after the COVID-19 coronavirus.

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