38 new officially confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) were reported in Tajikistan yesterday, bringing a total number of officially confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country to 7,950 as of the night of August 13, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population (MoHSPP) said.

The number of coronavirus-linked deaths has been reported in the country at 63, according to a MoHSPP.

6,741 (83.8 percent) COVID-19 patients have reportedly recovered as of the night of August 13, 2020.  

More than 1,000 people in Tajikistan have reportedly been treating COVID-19 at home under supervision of family doctors.    

The COVID-19 pandemic in Tajikistan is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).  The virus was confirmed to have spread to Tajikistan when its index cases, in Dushanbe and Khujand, were confirmed on April 30, 2020.  

Coronavirus cases around the globe have been reported at 20.6 million as of the night of August 13, 2020, of which 12.8 million have recovered and 749,000 have died.

A source within the Center for Sanitary ad Epidemiological Supervision says Tajikistan will send an application for purchase of coronavirus vaccine in Russia.  

Meanwhile, experts have raised concerns about the speed of Russia's work, and a growing list of countries have expressed skepticism, according to some media reports.  Scientists in Germany, France, Spain and the US have reportedly all urged caution.

Russia has dismissed mounting international concern over the safety of its locally developed COVID-19 vaccine as “absolutely baseless”, noting that the vaccine had been given regulatory approval after less than two months of testing on humans.

“It seems our foreign colleagues are sensing the specific competitive advantages of the Russian drug and are trying to express opinions that... are absolutely groundless,” Russia's Health Minister Mikhail Murashko told the Interfax news agency on August 12

He added that the vaccine would be available soon.