Local media reported that the Italian authorities stopped a shipment of the Russian “Sputnik V” vaccine intended for San Marino.The newspaper La Serenissima published in San Marino said today, Thursday, that the shipment of the Russian vaccine was stopped at Italian customs in Milan, claiming that “Sputnik V” has not yet obtained a license from the European Medicines Agency, and therefore it is not permissible to enter it in the territory of the European Union.
And the Russian “Novosti” agency previously quoted informed sources in San Marino as confirming that this small country surrounded on all sides on the Italian territory intends to use the “Sputnik V” vaccine to vaccinate its citizens against Corona.
The sources indicated that San Marino, which does not belong to the European Union, cannot rely on importing vaccines against Corona as part of the European Union’s vaccination program.
Last January, health authorities in San Marino and Italy reached an agreement to export Rome to the small neighboring country the shipment of vaccines sufficient to vaccinate 25,000 of its nearly 33,000 citizens.
But this agreement has not yet been implemented, and the vaccination process against Corona has not yet begun in San Marino, which prompted its authorities to study the possibility of acquiring “Sputnik V” (which is the first vaccine against the coronavirus that was developed in the world) and to communicate with the competent Russian authorities, including a fund. Direct investments, to secure this type of vaccine.
Last Tuesday, La Serenissima confirmed that a shipment of the Russian “Sputnik V” vaccine could arrive in the country soon, as part of a diplomatic process that was implemented thanks to the existing relations between the two countries.
Today, Sputnik V is among the three most popular vaccines against the Corona virus in the world, in terms of the number of countries that agree to use it.
The effectiveness of the Russian vaccine, which is vaccinated in two doses, reaches 91.4%, according to the results of clinical tests, with 100% protection from the risk of serious cases of infection.
International interest in the Russian vaccine, which has been approved so far in 28 countries, increased after the publication of the famous medical journal “The Lancet” in early February, of clinical test results that confirm its high effectiveness.
Source: La Serenissima + Novosti