North Macedonia Receives 1st Batch Of Russia's Sputnik V Vaccine - Health Minister

BELGRADE (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th March, 2021) North Macedonia on Sunday received the first shipment of the Russian-made Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, the country's Health Minister Venko Filipce said.

Earlier in the day, the Russian Direct Investment Fund said that North Macedonia became the 46th country to greenlight the use of Sputnik V.

Filipce and Russian Ambassador to the Balkan country Sergey Bazdnikin visited the Skopje International Airport to welcome the plane.

"The first batch of vaccines from Russia has just arrived in Macedonia ... I thank the ambassador of the Russian Federation for his personal contribution," the health minister told reporters at the airport.

Bazdnikin, on his part, noted that the Russian vaccine had already been registered in 46 countries and that its arrival in Skopje was the result of cooperation with the country's authorities.

Vaccination against the coronavirus in North Macedonia started after Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic donated 8,000 doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines in mid-February.

North Macedonia has also signed an agreement with China's Sinopharm on the delivery of 200,000 vaccine doses as well as expects to get up to 170,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, via the COVAX initiative.