Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad uncovered Monday that his country is holding discussions with Russia on the supply of the Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, hoping that Moscow would take into consideration Syria’s special economic and social conditions.
“There are discussions about this and we hope that the Syrian people [will] use Sputnik V and other [Russian] vaccines because the Syrian people have more confidence in Russian vaccines than [in] Pfizer and other vaccines,” Mekdad told Sputnik news agency in an interview published on Monday.
The Syrian Minister said his country is sure that the Russian people are generous enough to consider the present conditions of Syria, which is fighting terrorism and is being affected economically.
“We are sure when Russia starts vaccination here they will think about their friends not only in Syria, but in many other parts of the world because Western countries are trying to take advantage of such issues to control other countries,” Mekdad said.
Last October, Syrian President Bashar Assad said Damascus would look to negotiate a supply agreement with the Russian government once Sputnik V becomes internationally available. The President even announced he would get personally inoculated with the vaccine.
On Monday, the Syrian Health Ministry announced that 123 new coronavirus cases were recorded in the country, adding that 49 patients recovered and 11 died.
The first coronavirus case was detected in Syria on March 22 in a person who came from outside the country while the first death was registered on the 29th of the same month.
The Ministry noted Monday that the number of the registered COVID-19 cases has amounted to 10,318 of which 4,835 have recovered and 621 died.
However, Western media reports said that until early December, the virus infected at least 30,000 people in Syria, with estimations that the real number of cases might be even higher.