Serbian Authorities Expect License for Chinese Vaccine, Immunization Rate to Go Up This Week  

Vaccine (BETAPHOTO/DRAGAN GOJIC)

Dr Mirsad Djerlek, a state secretary at the Ministry of Health said on Jan. 17 that his Ministry was still waiting for the Serbian Agency for Medicine and Medical Devices to license China's vaccine which had arrived in Serbia, but that it was a good vaccine and that he believed it would be approved.

The healthcare official said that close to 22,000 Serbian citizens had been vaccinated so far, and that around 280,000 had applied for vaccines. He said that he recommended them to accept whatever vaccine was available.

The state secretary believes that it is good that Serbia is the only country to have obtained all three vaccines from the world's three leading nations, promising that aside from the Chinese vaccine and Russia's Sputnik V, another 20,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine would arrive in Serbia on Jan. 18.

A batch of one million doses of the Chinese Covid-19 vaccine reached Serbia on Jan. 16. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said at the Surcin airport that the first consignment was proof of the friendship between the two countries, while Chinese ambassador to Serbia Chen Bo explained that the Sinofarm vaccine was sent to Serbia just 16 days after its approval in China.