"The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund) announces the registration of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus in the Slovak Republic. Thus Slovakia has become the 39th country in the world and the second country of the European Union to authorise the use of Sputnik V. The vaccine was approved under the emergency use authorisation procedure", the statement says.
The first deliveries of the vaccine to Slovakia were made on 1 March. Sputnik V is one of the world's top three coronavirus vaccines in terms of the number of approvals received by government regulators. The combined population of the 39 countries that have registered the vaccine is over 1.1 billion.
"In Europe Sputnik V vaccine has been approved in Slovakia, Hungary, San-Marino, Serbia, Montenegro, Republika Srpska, Belarus and Russia with other countries of the region also showing strong interest in it. Vaccine partnership and diversification of national vaccine portfolios are the key for helping people feel safe and protected, restoring economic activity and ending the pandemic as soon as possible", RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev said.
Currently, the use of the Sputnik V vaccine is also approved in Russia, Belarus, Argentina, Bolivia, Serbia, Algeria, Palestine, Venezuela, Paraguay, Turkmenistan, Hungary, UAE, Iran, Republic of Guinea, Tunisia, Armenia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Republika Srpska (entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina), Lebanon, Myanmar, Pakistan, Mongolia, Bahrain, Montenegro, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Gabon, San-Marino, Ghana, Syria, Kyrgyzstan, Guyana, Egypt, Honduras, Guatemala and Moldova.
In February, peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet published an interim analysis from Phase III clinical trial of the Russian vaccine, showing its 91.6-percent efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19.