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Coronavirus pandemic

Macron says Sputnik V cannot be used in EU to accelerate vaccination

According to the French leader, a number of EU member states have decided to begin discussions about Sputnik

French President Emmanuel Macron EPA-EFE/CHRISTIAN HARTMANN/POOL

French President Emmanuel Macron

© EPA-EFE/CHRISTIAN HARTMANN/POOL

WASHINGTON, April 18. /TASS/. French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday he doesn’t think the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccines can now be used in the European Union to accelerate vaccination because it has not yet been certified by the European sanitary regulator.

"Because of the fact that we accelerated production in Europe, we are definitely catching up and we will be in the situation to meet our targets with what we have now," he said in an interview with CBS.

According to the French leader, a number of EU member states have decided to begin discussions about Sputnik. "But we have a-very few simple principles. First, if there is no recognition of a vaccine by our European sanitary authorities, there is no way to use this vaccine on our soil. And at this stage, the Russian vaccine is not recognized by our authorities," he said.

"So I don't think that the Russian vaccine today is a solution to an acceleration because it will take time to have the authorization of the European agency and it will take time to produce on our continent such a vaccine," he added.

Russia was the world’s first to register an anti-coronavirus vaccine in August 2020. The vaccine, developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Health Ministry, was given the name Sputnik V. It is a vector vaccine based on the human adenovirus

In early February 2020, The Lancet, a world-acclaimed medical journal, published the results of the third phase of Sputnik V clinical tests. The vaccine has proved to be among the world’s safest and most efficient. Thus, its efficacy is estimated at 91.6% and 91.8% among volunteers older than 60. Ninety-eight percent of volunteers developed antibodies to the coronavirus.

The vaccine has been registered in around 60 world nations, with an overall population of more than 1.5 billion. More than 30 nations use this vaccine for mass vaccination.

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