PRETORIA, December 25. /TASS/. Ethiopian government has displayed interest in obtaining the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus, a representative of the Russian Embassy in Ethiopia told TASS on Friday.
"Ethiopian authorities have complete information on the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and several times expressed the desire to obtain it," the diplomat said. "Several relevant documents were sent to the government, and now the Ethiopian side is studying them," he added.
Meanwhile, Ethiopian Health Minister Lia Tadesse stated that the government is preparing to inoculate against the coronavirus 20% of the country’s residents in the near future. "Currently the government is taking steps to gain access to the recently issued vaccines against COVID-19. We hope that efforts being applied now will allow to begin mass vaccination in the near future," the Fana TV channel quoted her as saying on Friday.
Ethiopia is in the second place in sub-Saharan Africa after South Africa by the number of the coronavirus infections and deaths caused by this virus - 120,638 and 1,864, respectively. The population of Ethiopia surpasses 100 mln people, placing it second in the continent after Nigeria.