The minister estimates that about 80,000 people who reject other vaccines will show interest in receiving the Russian vaccine. “It will be possible to vaccinate people aged 18 to 60 with a sputnik,” said Lengvarský. Sputnik should be vaccinated on Monday, June 7, and should start using this vaccine in vaccination centers in Bratislava, Lučenec, Nové Zámky, Humenné and Žilina.
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Vaccination with Sputnik was made possible by the Slovak government by its decision from last Wednesday. Slovakia will thus become the second member state to vaccinate with this vaccine after Hungary. The Russian Sputnik V vaccine has not yet been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and the Slovak State Institute for Drug Control, which still does not have enough information on the vaccine, has not issued an opinion on it.
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Slovakia imported 200,000 doses of Sputnik vaccine in March 1, but has not yet been vaccinated after the political turmoil. Former Prime Minister Igor Matovic, who did not inform his coalition partners, advocated the import of Sputnik. This caused a government crisis in the country and the Minister of Health Marek Krajčí and Prime Minister Matovič gradually resigned.
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Since then, the vaccines have been stored in a warehouse, they have not been used for vaccination because the Slovak Medicines Authority had doubts about their composition. In addition, Slovakia was late in paying for the first delivery, and the Russians then returned the payment. Sputnik imported to Slovakia finally had to be tested by a certified laboratory in Hungary.
The country currently uses mainly vaccines from Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna. Vaccination of new candidates with the AstraZeneca vaccine was suspended by the authorities mainly due to the lack of these vaccines.
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