Plenković: Government more than ready to procure Sputnik V vaccine

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Thursday that the government is more than ready to procure the Russian Sputnik V vaccine once it is approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Plenković said that the government had asked the Russian side for additional documentation on the Sputnik V vaccine and underscored that a formal procedure for the EMA to approve it had apparently begun.

"We will do everything bilaterally to see the details. When the Agency approves the vaccine, we are more than ready to procure it," the prime minister said.

It is expected that EMA will approve the Johnson&Johnson vaccine this month which is, he said, another 900,000 doses, to be distributed according to a certain dynamic.

He said that according to current data, more than 242,000 doses had been used in Croatia, and that 121,000 people had received one, while 60,000 had received both doses.

He added that 42,500 people have registered online to be vaccinated and that about 3,000 had called a toll-free line.

Plenković underscored that Croatia still had a relatively good epidemiological situation. According to the weekly incidence rate, we are ranked fourth in the EU in terms of the lowest rate and we have the lowest incidence among Mediterranean countries and the second lowest among Central European countries, he said.

Although we are seeing a growth in recent days, of 26% last week and 20% this week, we were able to allow hospitality establishments to reopen and sport trainings to resume, he added.

Underscoring that that was a step towards a more normal way of life, Plenković called for caution so that the trend of a decreasing number of patients in hospitals, patients on ventilators and deaths could be maintained.

Since there are infection hotspots in some counties, county COVID response teams are implementing stricter measures in agreement with the national COVID-19 crisis management team in order to curb a possible new spread of the epidemic, he said.

As for activities following the 29 December earthquake, the prime minister said that work on completing damage assessment was intensified so that it could be completed and so the government could apply for money from the European Solidarity Fund through the Ministry for Regional Development and EU Funds.

Text: Hina

News