Russian scientists at the Smorodintsev Research Institute of Influenza have managed to decode the first complete genome sequence of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) that would help develop a vaccine and understand the evolution of the new member of the coronavirus family.
Confirming this on March 19, the Russian Health Ministry said this data had been sent to the international database of the World Health Organization (WHO), so that scientists all over the work can have access to it to monitor the evolution of the novel coronavirus.
"Specialists of the Smorodintsev Research Institute of Influenza with the Russian Health Ministry sequenced the first full genome of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in Russia from the material taken from a COVID-19 patient," a statement said.
"This coronavirus is new to us, so it is essential to have an opportunity to identify the path of its spread and entry into the territory of our country and its mutations. This information will help develop vaccines and antiviral drugs to treat the coronavirus,” said Dmitry Lioznov, acting head of the Smorodintsev Research Institute of Influenza, whose specialists decoded the genome.
He said that that genetic research would help scientists understand the nature and the evolution of the novel coronavirus, which would lead to the development of a vaccine and efficient treatment methodology.
Russian scientists from the Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology in Novosibirsk have released high-quality photos of COVID-19 under a microscope.
"This coronavirus is new to us, so it is crucial to have an opportunity to determine the pattern of its spread and entry on the territory of our country, and the way the virus changes. This information will help us work out vaccines and antiviral drugs to treat the coronavirus," the ministry’s press service quotes Lioznov as saying.
According to Russian news agency TASS, Russia is developing six types of vaccines against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), which are expected to be approved and confirmed as safe in the near future, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said during a session of the government’s coordination centre tasked with combating the spread of the virus.
There has been a global effort to produce a vaccine after WHO officially declared the COVID-19 viral disease as a pandemic on March 11.
