Dodon: Moldova Should Buy 1 Million Doses of Sputnik V Vaccine

Socialists Party’s leader, Igor Dodon believes that Moldova should buy 1 million doses of Russian Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus in order to accelerate the vaccination pace. He stated this on April 6 live on social networks. “We are ready to buy at least 500,000 [vaccine doses], but I think we need to buy 1 million doses of Sputnik V vaccine. One vaccine’s cost is about $ 10. Do we have $ 10 million to buy 1 million vaccine doses? Yes, we will find this money in the budget. Better to spend 120 million lei ($ 10 million) on the Sputnik V vaccine than on elections. I think we should buy it,” Dodon said. The PSRM leader added it is necessary accelerating the vaccination rate in Moldova to 8-10 thousand people per day, but this requires a vaccine. Recall, at the end of last week, following his meetings in Moscow, Igor Dodon said that in the coming days Russia will transfer 180 thousand doses of Sputnik-V coronavirus vaccine humanitarian aid to Moldova. A third of this party is destined for Transdniestria. He also said that Moldova is ready to purchase at least 500 thousand doses of Sputnik V. Epidemiologist Alexei Ceban said that the Ministry of Health is knows nothing about the possible delivery of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine to Moldova. This also stated the acting head of the Ministry of Health Tatiana Zatic. “We have no information as well. We are waiting. Maybe they will contact us again, but so far, we do not know anything about it. The Ministry of Health is negotiating with all vaccine manufacturers: AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Sputnik V. But so far, we do not have exact information about agreements and delivery times,” she said in an interview with NM. Later, the adviser to the Minister of Health, Labor and Social Protection Cristina Stratulat told NM that Russia is ready to transfer a batch of the vaccine to Moldova in the near future. The Ministry of Health noted that they received information through diplomatic channels.