San Marino Says 70% Of Population Fully Vaccinated Against COVID-19, Mostly With Sputnik V

ROME (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th May, 2021) About 70% of the population of San Marino have been fully inoculated against COVID-19, predominantly using Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, the state's heath authority told Sputnik on Monday.

In early April, the European microstate registered a surge in the number of COVID-19 infections with almost 250 new cases per week. By May, the local authorities managed to reduce the infection rate to zero, making San Marino the first European country to defeat the pandemic. Reportedly, about 90% of all vaccinations in the country were conducted using Sputnik V.

"The mass vaccination campaign that began in San Marino thanks to the supply of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, is yielding excellent results. As of now, about 70% of our population received both doses of the drug, which suggests that we will soon reach herd immunity. Vaccines are currently administered to Italians living near San Marino borders and working in the republic, as well as foreign students at our university," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson stressed that over the past week San Marino has nor registered a single case of the infection. At present, only four people are still quarantining at home with COVID-19.

Additionally, San Marino continues to carry out its COVID-19 vaccination campaign for foreign tourists, which began on May 17. Over the past week, 51 foreigners received the first dose of the Sputnik V vaccine. Among those vaccinated are citizens of Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Latvia, Russia, the US, the Philippines, France, Switzerland and other countries.

San Marino is not an EU member state, so it did not have to wait for the bloc's regulator to approve the Russian vaccine to use it.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, San Marino with a population of 33,000 has registered more than 5,000 cases of the coronavirus.