No green light yet for Sputnik V vaccine: Merkel

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday there are no plans yet to grant approval for the use of Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine in Germany.

"When it comes to Sputnik V, the Russian vaccine, there are still questions unanswered. What is crucial to us is the approval of the EMA (European Medicines Agency)," she said in Berlin after her meeting with premiers of the 16 states.

"The documents are not yet sufficient for approval. Depending on when this approval is granted, it makes sense to buy something from Sputnik V or not."

Merkel's remarks come in the wake of German plans to buy 30 million Sputnik V vaccine doses. Saxony state Premier Michael Kretschmer travelled to Moscow last week for talks with the Russian government to purchase the jabs.

Germany wants to buy up to 30 million doses of Sputnik V this summer, assuming that the European drugs regulator approves the shot, according to Kretschmer.

Health Minister Jens Spahn has pledged that everyone in Germany, a country of 83 million, could be offered a vaccine by June. Some 25.4 million vaccine doses have been administered thus far, with 5.96 million people fully vaccinated.