President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko wanted to start production of a coronavirus vaccine developed in China in the country, Interfax reports.
According to him, the possibility of producing a vaccine in the republic was discussed with the President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping, who promised to provide Minsk with access to production technologies for the drug. Lukashenko also assured that both Chinese and Belarusian specialists will be involved in the work on the deployment of the necessary capacities.
He stressed that in parallel with this, he agreed with Moscow on the production of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine on the territory of the republic. “And I am sure that in the near future we will receive our vaccine in Belarus, no matter how difficult it may be for us,” Lukashenka added.
Belarus announced the start of a campaign to immunize certain groups of its citizens against coronavirus on December 29. Lukashenko refused to be vaccinated and said that he considers himself a skeptic in this matter. According to the latest data, more than 263 thousand cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in the republic since the beginning of the pandemic.