In San Marino, vaccination against coronavirus with the Russian drug Sputnik V has begun. The secretary for health and social security of the republic, Roberto Chavatta, told TASS agency about it.
According to him, the first vaccinations will be given to local doctors. Vaccinations will be voluntary. Chavatta said that Italian citizens will not be able to receive the drug in San Marino, they will have to be vaccinated in their state.
San Marino first entered into a vaccine supply agreement with Italy. However, since December 27, when the vaccination campaign began in 27 EU countries, the republic has not received a single EU-approved vaccine. The first doses of the Russian drug were delivered to San Marino on 23 February.
On February 18, the Montenegrin authorities received the first batch of Sputnik V. Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic personally handed over 2,000 doses of the drug. She suggested the drug could be applied to frontline health workers.
Earlier, the developers of Sputnik V proposed to accelerate the mass shipments of the vaccine in the EU, using production facilities in Europe after the drug is approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
Sputnik V is the world's first registered human adenovirus vaccine. Currently, the development of Russian scientists is among the ten best vaccine candidates in the list of the World Health Organization (WHO). In Russia, the vaccination campaign started on December 5, 2020.
