Russia has begun the third and final phase of clinical trials for a coronavirus vaccine. The Russian government plans to administer the vaccine to health workers from November.
Russia's health ministry announced on Wednesday that the vaccine being developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center is being put through the phase three trials at a medical institution in Moscow. Media reports say the trials will involve 31,000 volunteers.
The vaccine has been named "Sputnik V" after the world's first satellite that the former Soviet Union launched in 1957.
The Russian government approved the vaccine in early August, when it had only completed the phase two trials.
Some Russian researchers involved in the development of the vaccine boasted that they have surpassed the United States in this field.
Critics both in Russia and abroad have expressed doubts about the safety and efficacy of what they see as a vaccine developed for political purposes.
The Russian research team reported in the British medical journal Lancet this month that early clinical trials showed no serious health effects.
