Russia has registered and its Health Ministry approved a third coronavirus vaccine for public use, the country's prime minister announced on Saturday.

The vaccine, called CoviVac, was developed by the Chumakov Center for Research and Development of Immunobiological Drugs, Mikhail Mishustin said at a meeting with the government in Moscow.

-I want to start with some very good news: today, the third vaccine, CoviVac, was registered- he said, adding that by mid-March, -the first 120,000 doses will be launched into civil circulation.-

Strict controls will ensure that stepped-up production will in no case affect the vaccine quality, he said.

With the start of the vaccination campaign in early December, the spread of coronavirus in Russia has slowed significantly.

On Saturday, the country's coronavirus emergency task force reported 12,953 new cases, 480 COVID-related deaths, and 17,484 recoveries.

The total number of people who have been exposed to the virus since the beginning of the pandemic stands at 4.15 million, and over the same period the virus has claimed the lives of 82,876 people.