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San Marino lives completely isolated because of COVID-19.
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Forty days after the arrival in San Marino of the first shipment of Russian Sputnik V vaccines, the small republic, surrounded by Italy, is on track to acquire herd immunity. Since the end of February, 33,000 people have been vaccinated en masse – first with Pfizer and then with Sputnik V.
The San Marino government has been forced to take matters into its own hands and seek help from Moscow after Italy delayed sending the agreed-upon vaccines. More than 17,500 people have already been vaccinated and another 5,000 have passed COVID, which means they are almost reaching herd immunity. As of April 12, 18-year-olds have been vaccinated in the republic, while in Italian municipalities with fewer inhabitants than San Marino, even 80-year-olds have not been vaccinated.
The final gong in the vaccination process was struck thanks to Russian aid. A few days ago, the last shipment of 37,000 doses of Sputnik V arrived in the republic, which is even more than the number of inhabitants. According to the San Marino Institute for Social Security, herd immunity will be a fact until the beginning of May.
From 12 April, restaurants in San Marino can be open until 9.30 pm, and from 18 April, the evening hours are expected to be open until midnight, and the restaurants can be open until 11 pm. Cinemas and theaters will open on April 26. Shopping malls can also be open on weekends. Schools are already open for 100% face-to-face training, and fitness centers will open on April 19.
And yet no one in San Marino celebrates because the inhabitants are like locked in a crystal cage. The country is surrounded on all sides by “orange” Italian areas, which means that both going out and entering is prohibited. This means that San Marino has to live completely isolated as an island.
The lack of external
people, however
killer for
the economy
of the small republic because 25% of its GDP comes from tourism. Many souvenir shops are not even open because there is no one to work for. Bars, hotels and restaurants are also almost empty.
In happy times, they served crowds of Russian tourists who came here from nearby Adriatic resorts. Only with German tourists arrived loaded with about 20 buses every day. As the Repubblica newspaper recalls, from May to October San Marino was full of tourists from all over Europe, plus Italians who stopped there on their way to Venice, Florence or Rome.
Although hundreds of Italians are trying to get vaccinated with Sputnik for a fee in San Marino, the republic has so far responded negatively.
Some observers note how the small country has implemented a “vaccination compromise”.
Pro-American
minded residents
have been vaccinated
with Pfizer,
and the pro-Russian ones – with “Sputnik”. Similarly, San Marino solved the problem with polio vaccines in 1958. Then there was another delay in supplies from Italy, so the republic turned to the United States for help, which sent 2,600 doses free of charge by military plane within a week. of the Salk vaccine. Friendly relations with Washington date back to the time of Abraham Lincoln, who was even an honorary citizen of San Marino.
The San Marino Aqueduct, opened in 1962, is funded entirely by US money. Relations with Moscow date back to the Soviet era. Citizens of San Marino were once the only ones who could visit the Soviet Union without a visa. Communists and socialists used to be in power in the small republic, while Christian Democrats were in opposition.
In parallel with the Sputnik vaccination in San Marino, the vaccinated are monitored for their reactions after taking the Russian preparation. On a voluntary basis, most of the 10,000 residents who chose Sputnik will be tested. The University of Ferrara, the Institute of Health of San Marino and the Roman Institute of Infectious Diseases “Spalanzani” will assess the amount of antibodies to the virus in the bodies of those immunized three weeks after vaccination. These data may be crucial for the approval of the Russian vaccine by the European Medicines Agency.
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