Russia's defence ministry starts testing coronavirus vaccine

Russia's Ministry of Defence and the Gamalei Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology have started human trials of a vaccine for COVID-19, according to a statement from the ministry released on Thursday. After a two-week period in isolation, a group of 18 volunteers received the trial vaccine on Thursday.

Approval for the trials was issued by the Ministry of Health on Tuesday, the statement said. As of Tuesday, neither the Russian Ministry of Defence nor the Gamalei Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology appeared in the World Health Organization's Draft landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines.

Russia reported on Thursday that over 7,790 new cases of the novel coronavirus. That is the lowest daily rise in infections in six weeks, bringing the nationwide total to over 561,000.