President Vladimir Putin said Russia is facing problems in its push to mass produce covid-19 vaccines, as the number of inoculations in Moscow slowed.
"The only question now is how to ensure the required volume of industrial production," Putin said at VTB Capital's Russia Calling forum Thursday. "There are certain problems associated with the presence or absence of the necessary equipment."
The Sputnik V vaccine, developed by Moscow's Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology and the Russian Direct Investment Fund, has run into problems ramping up production. It is already being used for front-line workers. Even so, Putin said mass inoculations could begin by the end of the year.
The number of Sputnik V vaccinations in Moscow has fallen by 20% to 25% from a peak of 1,000 a day, according to a person with knowledge of the issue who asked not to be identified because the information was not public.
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Gamaleya director Alexander Gintsburg said 100 volunteers are getting the first shot each day, down from 500 to 600 earlier, because of capacity restraints, while those getting the second dose has reached about 600, Interfax reported.
Russian authorities have approved Sputnik V and another vaccine for widespread use, and expect to allow a third soon, even though none of them have finished Phase 3 trials to prove they are safe and effective. Sputnik V's developers began testing last month and said 40,000 people will participate.
Earlier, Reuters reported that Russia had halted vaccinations of volunteers for the Sputnik V trial, citing an unidentified representative of Crocus Medical, a group that is helping run the trial in Moscow.
Crocus Medical's Alexey Butylin denied that clinical trials of Sputnik V were suspended, saying the vaccine supply is sufficient, according to a statement distributed by RDIF. The Russian Health Ministry said Phase 3 testing is continuing.
RDIF chief Kirill Dmitriev said in July that Russia aimed to produce 30 million doses in 2020. That goal was dubbed "impossible" this month by Industry Minister Denis Manturov, who said a maximum of 2.3 million doses would be made.
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WEEKLY RECORDS
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization's Europe director said Thursday that the 53-country region has again reached a new weekly record for confirmed cases, with more than 1.5 million confirmed last week and more than 10 million since the start of the pandemic.
During a meeting with European health ministers, WHO European regional director Dr. Hans Kluge said, "hospitalizations have risen to levels unseen since the spring" and that deaths have risen by more than 30% in the past week.
"Europe is at the epicenter of this pandemic once again," Kluge said. "At the risk of sounding alarmist, I must express our very real concern."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned of a "difficult winter" as residents in France braced for life under a new monthlong lockdown, and Spain's parliament voted to extend a state of emergency.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the virus surge "is very serious. Numbers of cases are rising. Numbers of hospitalizations are rising. Numbers of death are rising, not as fast fortunately ... but the spread will overwhelm our health care systems if we do not act urgently."
The British government has resisted calls for a national lockdown, despite having significantly higher 14-day infection rates than Germany and a virus death toll four times larger.
Britain's Communities Secretary, Robert Jenrick, said the virus is "very concentrated in some places," and that it's best to target restrictions to those areas with the worst outbreaks.
POPE APPEARANCES
In Italy, Pope Francis is halting his public general audiences and will limit participation at Christmas and other upcoming Masses amid a surge of coronavirus cases in Italy and the Vatican, officials said Thursday.
Starting next week, Francis will resume live-streaming his weekly catechism lessons from his library in the Apostolic Palace, as he did during the Vatican's covid-19 lockdown during the spring and summer, the Vatican said.
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In addition, Francis' liturgical events over the next few weeks and months -- including Christmas -- will be attended by only limited numbers of faithful, the Vatican said, though it noted plans could change as the health situation evolves.
Ambassadors to the Vatican were informed recently that Christmas would be essentially a virtual affair for the diplomatic corps this year.
The shift indicated that the Vatican is moving back into partial lockdown mode along with the rest of Italy as Europe experiences surging covid-19 infections that are putting pressure on already overburdened health care systems.
The Vatican City State has not been spared, with 13 Swiss Guards testing positive this month. All told, the Holy See's official caseload stands at 27, according to the Johns Hopkins University running tally.
In India, the confirmed coronavirus caseload surpassed 8 million Thursday with daily infections dipping to the lowest level this week, as concerns grew over a major Hindu festival season and winter setting in.
India's trajectory is moving toward the worst-hit country, the United States, which has more than 8.8 million cases.
Meanwhile, Taiwan hit 200 days without any domestically transmitted cases of covid-19 Thursday, highlighting the island's continued success at keeping the virus under control even as cases surge in other parts of the world.
Taiwan's Center for Disease Control last reported a domestic case on April 12. CDC officials noted the milestone and thanked the public for playing a role, while urging people to continue to wear masks and to wash their hands often.
Since the pandemic began, Taiwan has recorded 553 cases of covid-19, and just seven deaths.
Information for this article was contributed by Stepan Kravchenko and Ilya Arkhipov of Bloomberg News; and by Maria Cheng, Nicole Winfield, Lorne Cook, Samuel Petrequin, Ashok Sharma, Aniruddha Ghosal, Sheikh Saaliq and Frank Jordans of The Associated Press.