Slovakia becomes second EU nation to administer Russian vaccine

Slovakia has become the second European Union country to administer the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine.

Slovakia has 200,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccine available and approved its use on May 26.

But so far, only about 5,000 people have registered to receive the two-shot vaccine in the nation of 5.4 million.

Hungary was the first EU nation to use Sputnik V, which has not been authorised by the European Medicines Agency.

A secret deal for Slovakia to purchase two million Sputnik V jabs orchestrated by then-prime minister Igor Matovic triggered a political crisis in March that resulted in the Slovak government’s collapse.

Slovakia has been administering the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca jabs, and will also use Johnson & Johnson, also known as Janssen.

All of those vaccines have been authorised by EMA.

Sputnik V is administered to people 18 to 60 and is available in eight vaccination centres.