"The latest official vaccination data in Serbia confirms the Sputnik V Russian coronavirus vaccine to be the safest among COVID vaccines included in the country's national portfolio. The data confirms that Sputnik V demonstrates the highest safety profile: No vaccination-related serious adverse events registered; No vaccination-related deaths reported; No cerebral vein thrombosis cases after vaccination observed", the RDIF said in a press release.
According to the RDIF, Sputnik V made Serbia Europe's leader in vaccination against COVID-19, as 28 percent of the Serbian population is already fully vaccinated, compared to 14 percent in Europe on average.
In addition, Serbia's daily average infection rate fell 12-fold versus the peak rate in late March, and its current infection rate is lower than in Europe on average.
"The high safety profile of Sputnik V has once again been confirmed while inclusion in Serbia's vaccine portfolio enabled the country to become the European leader in vaccination against COVID. We appreciate the partnership with Serbia and stand ready to provide other countries with Sputnik V to help people feel safe again", RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev said, as quoted in the press release.
Serbian Minister of Innovations and Technological Development Nenad Popovic expressed gratitude to Russia for delivering vaccines and for providing Serbia the chance to become the first southern European country to start local Sputnik V production.
The first batch of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine was supplied to Serbia on 30 December 2020. Apart from Sputnik V, Serbia has also registered the COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca, and China's Sinopharm.
Sputnik V, the world's first registered coronavirus vaccine, has been approved for emergency use in more than 60 countries across the globe. According to an interim analysis from the trials published in The Lancet, the vaccine has a 91.6 percent efficacy rate.
