Slovakia signs deal to acquire 2 million doses of Sputnik V

PRAGUE (AP) — Slovakia signed a deal to acquire 2 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, Prime Minister Igor Matovic said Monday.

Matovic said his country will get 1 million shots in the next two months while another million will arrive in May and June.

Slovakia is the second European Union country to use the vaccine, which hasn't been approved by the European Medicines Agency, after Hungary. It hasn't been registered by Slovakia’s drug authority, but the deal was made possible by Health Minister Marek Krajci’s approval.

Matovic said the nation of 5.4 million will be able to speed up the vaccination program by 40%.

Slovakia has so far administered 305,832 shots of Western vaccines that it has received through an EU deal. To speed up what is considered a slow EU delivery, the country started to look for other options.

“Nobody has a recipe other than the necessity to inoculate,” Krajci said.

Slovakia became the country with the most COVID-19 deaths by size of population in the world amid a surge of a fast-spreading British coronavirus variant.

The number of COVID-19 patients in Slovakia’s hospitals reached a new record high of 4,008 on Sunday — a situation that has recently prompted leaders to appeal for outside help.

The seven-day rolling average of daily deaths didn't rise or increase over the past two weeks, remaining at 1.79 deaths per 100,000 people since Feb. 14 till Sunday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The country is planning to tighten its already strict lockdown on Wednesday.

Matovic’s coalition government originally rejected a plan to acquire Sputnik V on Feb 18 after one of his four coalition partners vetoed the move.

Matovic kept the deal secret, announcing it on Monday only after a military cargo plane with the...