OREANDA-NEWS. Former presidential candidate of Belarus Svetlana Tikhanovskaya appealed to the European Commission with a request to help with vaccination against coronavirus infection in the country. She called on the EU not to provide the vaccine directly to representatives of the Belarusian authorities, but to implement the campaign through a third party under international control, such as the UN Development Program.

Mass vaccination against the new coronavirus infection in Belarus is scheduled to begin in April. This statement was made by the Minister of Health of the country Dmitry Pinevich. The authorities of the republic prefer the Russian vaccine, the use of which will be a priority, he added. It is possible that the country will supply medicines from China.

Vaccination of volunteers from COVID-19 in Belarus started on the first of October. Vaccinations are given with the Russian «Sputnik V» vaccine as part of post-registration research. Official Minsk was the first after Russia to register this vaccine. At the initial stage, it is planned to vaccinate 200 thousand people, and by the spring of 2021, the number of vaccinated Belarusians should reach 1.2 million people. Belarus expects to start independent production of the Russian vaccine on it's territory in the first quarter of 2021.