Slovakia on Monday became the second European Union member state to administer the Russian-made Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine.
The Russian jab has not been authorised for use across the 27-country bloc by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) but has already been rolled out in Hungary. Slovakia approved the vaccine on May 26 with people allowed to pre-register to receive it from June 1.
The eastern European nation has 200,000 doses of the vaccine but so far only 5,000 people have registered to receive the two shots required for maximum efficiency.
Sputnik V is administered to people aged 18 to 60 and is available in eight vaccination centers.
More than 1.8 million of Slovakia’s 5.4 million inhabitants have received at least one dose of the vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca/Oxford University and Moderna — all three EMA-approved. Over 950,000 people are fully vaccinated.
The country is also expected to roll out the Johnson & Johnson jab, also approved by the European watchdog.
A secret deal for Slovakia to purchase 2 million Sputnik V shots orchestrated by then-Prime Minister Igor Matovic triggered a political crisis in March that resulted in the Slovak government’s collapse.
The following month, the maker of the Sputnik V vaccine demanded the country return the doses it had already received after Slovakia’s State Institute for Drug Control claimed the vaccines delivered to the country were different to elsewhere.
The institute said it had also not received enough information about Sputnik V to be able to assess its benefits and risks.
The official Twitter account of the Sputnik V vaccine accused Slovakia’s drug regulator of an “act of sabotage” and said it had “launched a disinformation campaign against Sputnik V and plans additional provocation”.
Cuffnews has contacted Slovakia’s government for comment.