Russia’s Chumakov Center plans to adjust its CoviVac vaccine to new COVID strains

MOSCOW, August 24. /TASS/. Russia’s Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune and Biological Products of the Russian Academy of Sciences is working on a modification of its CoviVac coronavirus vaccine to adjust it to new strains, the Center’s director, Aidar Ishmukhametov, said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel on Tuesday. "Yes, naturally," he said when asked a corresponding question. "We have already recovered the Delta strain. We have corresponding publications on that matter. This recovered strain is the basis of the whole-virion vaccine. <…> We are doing preparatory work to develop a new vaccine. It is not a matter of upgrading. This vaccine will simply have the Delta strain instead of the Alpha strain." According to Ishmukgametov, specialists of the Center have achieved a considerable antibody response to a combination of coronavirus and flu vaccines. "We conducted immunization of a living model with a vaccine that included a flu vaccine and our coronavirus vaccine. As a result, we received a considerable, even stronger, antibody response in both cases. So, we can say that based on an animal model the combination of these two vaccines has a positive effect and, obviously, is promising. We will probably continue to follow this path," he said. According to the latest statistics, around 212.6 million people have been infected worldwide and more than 4.4 million deaths have been reported. To date, 6,785,374 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 6,053,503 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 177,614 fatalities nationwide. The Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation. Read more