Covid-19: Czech president requests supply of Chinese vaccine Sinopharm

President Miloš Zeman has asked China for a supply of its anti-coronavirus vaccine Sinopharm, acting on a request from Prime Minister Andrej Babiš. Presidential spokesman Jiří Ovčáček said on Twitter that China would comply immediately with the request.

Sinopharm is not among the three vaccines against Covid-19 approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for use in the EU. Mr Babiš had previously said the Czech Republic could buy Sinopharm to keep in reserve until its eventual EMA approval.

Minister of Health Jan Blatný reiterated in parliament on Wednesday that he saw no reason to secure unapproved vaccines because insurance companies could not be able to pay for their use.

Meanwhile, the European Union on Wednesday approved giving the Czech Republic preferentially an additional 100,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.