“It is important to understand when we will be able to meet the demand of the country. I hope that it will happen within 9-12 months,” he told TASS.

Earlier, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said during a session with Russian President Vladimir Putin that medical workers and teachers would be the first to get the vaccine. The head of the Gamaleya Research Center noted that the amount of vaccine doses will be enough to vaccinate the first groups of the population.

Ginzburg informed that the vaccine would first be supplied to 10-15 regions of the country, however, he did not specify where.

He added that in a about a month, about one million vaccine doses would be produced at three plants producing monoclonal antibodies. “By the end of the year, there will be 1.5-2 mln doses produced. These are tangible and good numbers on the country’s scale,” he said.

On August 11, Russia became the first country to register a coronavirus vaccine, which was named Sputnik V. Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko informed that the vaccine created by the N. F. Gamaleya Federal Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology had shown its effectiveness and safety on the outcomes of clinical trials. It was created on a platform that had been used for the development of a number of other vaccines.

According to the Russian Health Ministry, experience shows that such vaccines are capable of developing long-term immunity that lasts for up to two years. Head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev pointed out that Russia had received applications for more than 1 bln doses of the vaccine from 20 countries.

Harry Roque, Duterte’s spokesman, made the announcement a day after the Philippines met with representatives of the Russian vaccine developer, research facility Gamaleya, to discuss trials and information about the inoculation.

Russia on Tuesday became the world’s first country to grant regulatory approval for a COVID-19 vaccine, to be named “Sputnik V” in homage to the Soviet Union’s launch of the world’s first satellite.

But its decision to grant approval before completing trials has raised concerns among some experts, who fear it may be putting national prestige before safety.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told Reuters that all clinical trials would need to go through the regulatory process.

Phase three clinical trials in the Philippines are due to run from October to March 2021, after a panel of vaccine experts completes its review on Russia’s phase one and two trials in September, Roque told a media briefing.

Duterte is keen to access a vaccine and in July made a plea to China to make the Philippines a priority if it develops one.

The president has pledged that the Philippines, which suffered its biggest economic contraction in nearly three decades, would be “back to normal” by December even as it has been reporting record numbers of daily coronavirus infections since July.

The novel coronavirus has infected more than 143,000 people and killed 2,404 in the Philippines. A strict coronavirus lockdown recently reintroduced in and around the capital Manila is unlikely to be extended beyond August 18, the presidential spokesman said.