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The Slovak government today decided to use the Russian coronavirus vaccine “Sputnik V” even without approval from the European Medicines Agency (EMA). The TASR news agency quoted the four-party coalition’s reasoning in its decision: “There is still a non-negligible number of citizens who declare that they want to be vaccinated only with Sputnik V.”
Disagreement in the cabinet
This should not be ignored if sufficient vaccination coverage of the population is to be achieved, the government argues. Health Minister Vladimir Lengvarsky received a formal order from the Cabinet to ensure the start of vaccination by June 7.
As recently as yesterday, Lengvarsky had criticized that Russia had still not delivered the complete documentation needed for the final assessment. He said Slovakia should therefore follow the EMA’s recommendations and not use the vaccine until it had received EU approval. Liberal Economy Minister Richard Sulik admitted to TV news channel TA3 that not all ministers had agreed with the cabinet’s majority decision.
Slovakia had already received 200,000 doses of the vaccine from Russia in early March, but had not used it until now because of the lack of approval. Now, after Hungary, it will become the second EU country to use the Russian vaccine.
- source: orf.at/picture: pixabay.com
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