MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/: About 66,000 people are being tested for novel coronavirus in Moscow every day, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin told the Rossiya-1 TV channel.
"First of all, it [the growth in novel coronavirus cases in Moscow] is linked to the increased number of tests made. The number of tests reaches 66,000 daily, which is a huge number. This means that we test about one million people every two weeks," he said.
According to the mayor, the share of positive tests remains the same as 2-3 weeks ago.
"The number [of registered cases] grows because the overall number of tests also grows," Sobyanin said.
He went on to say that the novel coronavirus sutaiton in Moscow is also affected by the season, the resumption of full-fledged business activities in the Russian capital and the start of the academic year.
"We need to do our best to prevent a seasonal flu epidemic this year. To that end, we have already vaccinated more than one million people, and at least five more million residents should be vaccinated. A total of 400 stationary and 50 mobile vaccination facilities are operational, this is enough so far, and there are no queues as of today," the mayor said.
About 400 Moscow residents are to take part in post-registration trials of the novel coronavirus vaccine, Sobyanin said. The number of volunteers has already exceeded 60,000.
"A total of 700 people have already been vaccinated [against the novel coronavirus], all of them are feeling well," the mayor said.
On August 11, Russia registered the world’s first vaccine against the novel coronavirus. The vaccine, dubbed Sputnik V, was developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Health Ministry, and its clinical trials were successfully completed in June-July. The vaccine was developed on a platform that had been used for a number of other vaccines.
