OREANDA-NEWS. 400 children aged 12-17 years in Moscow were vaccinated against coronavirus as part of clinical trials of the Sputnik-M vaccine, said the city's deputy mayor Anastasia Rakova.

“Last week we started the third phase of clinical trials of the Sputnik M vaccine for adolescents. Already 700 children have passed the necessary tests, 400 of them have received the first component of the vaccine, ”the vice-mayor said.

According to her, the number of children suffering from COVID-19 has grown significantly this fall, more and more children began to get sick in moderate or severe form. Now 25-30 children are hospitalized per day due to the delta strain of coronavirus, Rakova explained. Now there are 150 children in hospitals, four of them are on mechanical ventilation.

The third phase of vaccine trials will involve 3,000 adolescents: 2,400 will receive the vaccine, another 600 will receive a placebo. The group will be assigned randomly. According to preliminary test results, the vaccine is effective and safe. Vaccination with "Sputnik M" is carried out in two stages, as with "Sputnik V" for people over 18 years of age, but the dosage of the vaccine for children is five times less than for adults.

On September 23, the Ministry of Health announced that it had received documents for the registration of a coronavirus vaccine for children 12-17 years old from the Gamaleya center. On October 12, he said that an expert assessment of the ability to vaccinate children against coronavirus could end within two weeks.

The side effects of the coronavirus vaccine for adolescents, identified during clinical trials, are insignificant, most often the temperature rises in children to 37.3 degrees, TASS reported, citing the director of the Gamaleya Scientific Center, Alexander Gintsburg. In early November, Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko said that the examination of documents on a vaccine for children is close to completion.