Russia is trying to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic at distant approaches, so as not to let the coronavirus inside the country. The next step towards this goal was the closure of Russian borders to foreigners on March 16 – this regime will last at least until May 1.
This approach can work, especially along with the diagnosis of those who could be infected through contact with virus carriers. As of today, in Russia, 116,061 coronavirus screenings have already been carried out, as a result of which only 114 people were infected with SARS-CoV-2.
The developer of the Russian test systems for the diagnosis of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was the famous scientific center “Vector” (FBUN “State Scientific Center for Virology and Biotechnology“ Vector ”) from Novosibirsk Koltsov. This institute is one of the leading centers of virology not only in Russia but throughout the world. On the account of “Vector” – the development and production of test systems for the diagnosis of HIV infection and hepatitis B, as well as the creation of a vaccine against the Ebola virus.
Vector is the heir and worthy successor of the Soviet epidemic control program. For example, the center is still one of the two storage sites for smallpox virus in the world.
WHO’s interest in the development of test systems at this enterprise is also clear – at the end of January, the World Health Organization approved two versions of the rapid test for the virus developed by “Vector”, which are now used by the departments of the Federal Service for Supervision of Health and Human Welfare.
True, some commentators, who over the past couple of months have suddenly become preoccupied with the situation with the epidemic, consider the measures undertaken by Russia to be ineffective and even false. Say, testing for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 carriers in Russia is either not carried out at all, or it is pointless because of the “poor quality of the tests”, and the low data voiced by the Ministry of Health are just beautiful numbers that hide the “terrifying situation” with the infection .