Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday he would volunteer to be among the first to try a Russian vaccine for the novel coronavirus if it proved effective, Reuters reports.

Moscow's decision to approve the vaccine and produce the first batches after less than two months of human testing has raised concerns among some scientists, considering only about 10 per cent of clinical trials are successful.

Some scientists have said they fear Russia may be putting prestige before safety.

“I'd be the first to be vaccinated,” Lopez Obrador said at his regular morning news conference.

Meanwhile, the global vaccine race continues.