San Marino will on Monday become the first country in Europe to offer paying tourists access to coronavirus vaccinations in a so-called “vaccine vacation” scheme.
Two doses of the Russian-developed jab will cost tourists €15 (£12.90) and plans are in place for the country “to generate vaccination certificates for residents and tourists”, the news agency adds.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Booking a vaccine vacation will come “under the condition that people pay for a three-night stay in San Marino after each of the shots, which are administered at a 21-day interval”, Politico’s Brussels Playbook says.
San Marino’s decision to order doses of the Russian vaccine put it at odds with Italy, which completely surrounds the microstate. It “initially appealed to Italy” for vaccines, but “after not getting anything for weeks, it turned to plan B – Russia – in February”, the site adds.
The tiny landlocked nation is not a member of the EU, which has not yet granted approval to Sputnik V. It is, however, under review by the bloc’s regulator, the European Medicines Agency.
Like the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, Sputnik V is based on a version of a common cold virus that “is tailored to carry genetic instructions for making the coronavirus spike protein”, The Guardian says. Based on the numbers of confirmed Covid cases from 21 days after the first dose, the Sputnik vaccine is 91.6% effective, according to a study published in The Lancet.
In a statement the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), the sovereign wealth fund responsible for marketing the vaccine abroad, said it was ready to provide additional batches of Sputnik V to San Marino to support the vaccine scheme.
“RDIF is ready to provide additional supplies of the vaccine to arrange vaccination tourism,” its chief executive, Kirill Dmitriev, was cited as saying.
-
Alchemised: how Harry Potter fanfic went mainstreamIn The Spotlight Traditional publishers are signing up fan fiction authors to rewrite their ‘explosively popular’ romances for the mass market
-
Sudoku hard: October 6, 2025The Week's daily hard sudoku puzzle
-
Crossword: October 6, 2025The Week's daily crossword
-
The new Stratus Covid strain – and why it’s on the riseThe Explainer ‘No evidence’ new variant is more dangerous or that vaccines won’t work against it, say UK health experts
-
Why are autism rates increasing?The Explainer Medical experts condemn Trump administration’s claim that paracetamol during pregnancy is linked to rising rates of neurodevelopmental disorder in US and UK
-
RFK Jr. vaccine panel advises restricting MMRV shotSpeed Read The committee voted to restrict access to a childhood vaccine against chickenpox
-
Texas declares end to measles outbreakSpeed Read The vaccine-preventable disease is still spreading in neighboring states, Mexico and Canada
-
RFK Jr. shuts down mRNA vaccine funding at agencySpeed Read The decision canceled or modified 22 projects, primarily for work on vaccines and therapeutics for respiratory viruses
-
Cytomegalovirus can cause permanent birth defectsThe Explainer The virus can show no symptoms in adults
-
RFK Jr. scraps Covid shots for pregnant women, kidsSpeed Read The Health Secretary announced a policy change without informing CDC officials
-
New FDA chiefs limit Covid-19 shots to elderly, sickspeed read The FDA set stricter approval standards for booster shots
