The minister indicated that concerning the Sputnik V vaccine, the first for Covid-19 to be announced, "there are facts that have been reported, that phase 3 [of testing in the community] may not have been fully completed".

On the other hand, "no one is available to waste the opportunity to have an instrument that helps to respond to this disease", she admitted.

Marta Temido stated that the Portuguese medicine regulatory authority (Infarmed) is “working with the European Medicines Agency, integrated into a competent, trained network and with all the means at its disposal to ensure that Portugal is among the countries that will have access to what will become an effective vaccine for Covid-19 ”.

The Russian vaccine, whose registration was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a meeting with the cabinet of ministers, was not among the six that WHO said last week were in more advanced stages.

However, many scientists questioned the decision to register the vaccine before the scientists completed the so-called Phase 3 of the study.

This phase usually takes several months and involves thousands of people and is the only way to prove that the experimental vaccine is safe and works.