Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine

Oliver Varhelyi, the Hungarian nominee for European Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare, has been sent back for a second round of questioning after MEPs expressed dissatisfaction with his responses. The hearing, which took place in Brussels, involved Varhelyi addressing the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, as well as Agriculture and Rural Development committees.

Serbian Health Minister Zlatibor Loncar said its country accepted the "serious responsibility" it was being given after the WHO on Wednesday approved Serbia to produce RNA vaccines, which include Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna vaccines, but also vaccines made for other illnesses besides COVID-19.

The coronavirus variant Omicron may partially evade protection from two doses of vaccine produced by Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech, Alex Seagal, head of research at a South African laboratory, told Reuters on Tuesday.

On Friday, the EU medicines supervisor said countries could use Merck's covid pill in emergencies caused by the growing number of cases before treatment is officially approved across the bloc.

Russians are travelling to Croatia to get EU-approved vaccines since at home they can only get the Russian Sputnik vaccine, which the EU and many other countries don't recognize,

300 international units of antibodies in the blood are needed for complete protection against the Delta coronavirus variant. This was announced to the Russian newspaper "Izvestia" Alexander Ginzburg, director of the National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology "Gamaleya".

In the EU, more than 75 percent of adult citizens are already fully vaccinated against covid. This was announced by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

She added that to date, the EU has exported more than a billion doses of vaccine to more than 150 countries around the world. The EU is the largest exporter of vaccines, the EC president said.

"Perhaps we should consider the introduction of paying for medical services or punishing those who oppose vaccination", medical professionals in the field of epidemiology, virusology and microbiology stated, with an idea to vaccinate majority of population and thus preventing the virus to mutate in new strains.

Russia's daily coronavirus infections soared Thursday to their highest level so far this year as authorities have struggled to control a surge in new cases amid a slow pace in vaccinations and few restrictions in place.

The daily coronavirus death toll topped 900 for a second straight day, with 924 new deaths reported Thursday — a day after reaching a record 929.

CEO of Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) that made "Sputnik V", Kirill Dmitriev, stated that he believes that representatives of the WHO will visit Russia soon, in October. "We have no doubt that the WHO will approve the vaccine," Dmitriev said at the Bloomberg Invest Global conference.