BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 18. Vaccine against coronavirus (COVID-19) which claimed lives of over 10,000 people in Azerbaijan has been developed in the country, Corresponding Member of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS), Professor Tarlan Mammadov told TurkicWorld.

"The pre-clinical trials are over. Further work depends on investors, because there should be funds for conducting clinical trials. The vaccine developed by us is the sole effective in the world against all COVID-19 strains, including Omicron," Mammadov said.

"The publications said that the COVID-19 vaccine developed by us is effective against the Omicron and Delta strains," the professor explained.

He noted that the vaccine is planned to be called ‘Karabakh’.

"Although the COVID-19 pandemic is over, the Omicron strain is still active. We have developed a universal vaccine against coronavirus. People are still being infected with Omicron. This vaccine is also effective against the new strains," Mammadov also said.

Back in 2020, Mammadov said that from the first days of the pandemic, he and a team of 20 people began work on the development of a vaccine against COVID-19.

Up until now, 831,678 people have been infected with coronavirus in Azerbaijan, 821,324 of them have recovered, and 10,268 people have died.

The first COVID-19 case in Azerbaijan was reported on Feb. 28, 2020. The coronavirus outbreak reportedly started in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - at a fish market in late December 2019. The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11 declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019.