ROME – Starting in June, Italy will be the first European country to take on production of the Russian Covid-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, and will hope to produce 10 million doses by the end of the year.

  RDIF, the Russian fund producing the vaccine, has signed a deal with the Swiss company Adienne Pharma & Biotech, for the vaccine to be produced in a facility in Caponago, near Monza.

  “The innovative production process,” the Italo-Russian Chamber of Commerce has said, “will help to create new places of work and will allow Italy to control the entire process of production.”

  However, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is continues to express doubt in the efficacy of the vaccine. The EMA’s President, Christa Wirthumer-Hoche, has said that using the vaccine today, before the EMA has had the chance to fully verify all the data would be a “Russian roulette.”

  The Gamaleya Institute in Moscow, which produces the vaccine, has asked for the EMA to apologise for Wirthumer-Hoche’s words, saying “they raise serious questions on possible political interference in the ongoing tests at the EMA,” and that Sputnik V has been approved by 46 countries. They added that “the EMA has not allowed similar declarations about any other vaccine.”

  Italy’s rush to secure vaccine doses has become more frantic with the latest data showing rising Covid-19 cases and a possible third wave.

  The government are divided over the introduction of new restrictions, with the Prime Ministerial decree (DPCM) set to change to include the orders for weekend lockdowns. The CTS (Scientific and Technical Committee of the Department of Civil Protection) has warned of the need for new closures, and the need to change the automatic red zone to places with 250 weekly cases per 100,000 people.

  With daily new cases around 20,000 every day, Mario Draghi and his ministers, most notably Minister for Health Roberto Speranza and Minister for the Regions Mariastella Gelmini, are arguing for further bans on movement and the closure of bars and restaurants.

  As of this weekend, all bars, restaurants and museums will be closed, which has put a significant setback on the plan to open cinemas and theatres by March 27, as the current DPCM proposes, even if they will be allowed to open during the week, under current guidelines.