Vaccine

The development of a vaccine against coronavirus is possible by October, according to Albert Bourlas, head of the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.

In an interview with Kathimerini, he said the company he manages has a budget of 2 billion euros for the research that will lead to the discovery of the vaccine and the creation of antiviral drugs.

The Prime Minister announced categorically that neither the borders nor the settlements will be closed anymore.

According to PM Boyko Borissov, the strength of the COVID-19 epidemic is no longer so strong and hospitals have been strengthened enough.

China will strengthen international cooperation in future COVID-19 clinical vaccine trials, building on earlier collaboration in vaccine development, the science and technology minister said on June 7.   

Governments around the world on June 4 pledged $8.8 billion for global vaccines alliance Gavi to help immunisation programmes disrupted by coronavirus, prompting calls for global cooperation to ensure a potential COVID-19 vaccine is available to all.    

The goal is to ensure that they are fairly distributed around the world, the business daily "Handelsblatt" reported.

Russian scientists are developing a vaccine against the new coronavirus, which can be introduced into the body in the form of yogurt. The agency quoted a statement from Vladimir Chekhonin, vice president of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

"The most important thing was to find out how it was transmitted, because at the beginning, it was said that it was by droplets. It was strange to me that there were 1.000 cases a day and I said - if we all kissed and spat on each other, it wouldn't be like this," says Dr Ana Gligic, who stopped "smallpox epidemic" about 50 years ago.

In the worldwide battle against COVID-19, scientists are investigating whether a century-old tuberculosis vaccine might offer some additional protection against the novel coronavirus.

And Bulgaria -- one of the world's leading manufacturers of the vaccine -- is holding out hope of new markets for the many millions of doses it produces each year.

One out of three Romanians would refuse to be vaccinated against Covid-19, according to an opinion survey conducted on May 13 and 14 by the Romanian Institute for Evaluation and Strategy, IRES, results of which were published by media on Turesday.

As the World Health Assembly (WHA) is set to convene on May 18, prominent personalities from across the globe urged world powers to pledge a free "COVID-19 vaccine for all" when available.