Clinical trials of a vaccine against the novel Coronavirus were completed on volunteers at Sechenov University, and the results of research proved the medication’s effectiveness, chief researcher Elena Smolyarchuk told TASS on Sunday.

"The research has been completed and it proved that the vaccine is safe. The volunteers will be discharged on July 15 and July 20," said Smolyarchuk, who heads the Center for Clinical Research on Medications at Sechenov University.

The volunteers will remain under medical supervision on an out-patient basis after being discharged, she said.

The first stage of research on the vaccine at Sechenov University kicked off on June 18 when a group of 18 volunteers was vaccinated. The second group of 20 volunteers was vaccinated on June 23.

About 275,300 people remain under medical supervision in Russia due to being suspected of having COVID-19, the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing said on Monday "A total of 275,300 under medical supervision in Russia," its press service reported.

According to the watchdog, more than 23.2 million coronavirus tests have been conducted nationwide, with 261,000 tests conducted in the past 24 hours.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.

Russia’s Vektor State Research Center for Virology and Biotechnologies has successfully completed pre-clinical trials of an anti-coronavirus vaccine, Anna Popova, chief of the Russian sanitary watchdog, said on Friday.

"Colleagues have finished pre-clinical trials. They were successful. Actually, we have practically all the grounds to be sure that things will go as we promised, i.e. we plan to begin clinical trials on July 15," she said in an interview with the Vesti news program on the Rossiya-1 television channel.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova said earlier that works on the development of an anti-coronavirus vaccine proceeded as scheduled.

To date, 713,936 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 489,068 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 11,017 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.