Kosovo gets first Covid-19 vaccines

Kosovo received its first shipment of Covid-19 jabs on Sunday, through the UN-backed Covax scheme to help poorer nations.

The batch of 24,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine was delivered as Kosovo, like the rest of its Balkans neighbours, is fighting a significant surge in the number of coronavirus infections.

"Our country is small and poor, so it needs strong support and solidarity, especially from the US and the EU" in fighting the pandemic, Prime Minister Albin Kurti told reporters at the Pristina airport.

"This is a small contingent but it raises great hopes for the beginning of saving people's lives."

CORONAVIRUS SPECIAL COVERAGE ONLY ON DH

Apart from Kurti and other Kosovo officials, top Western and UN diplomats here also attended the handover of jabs which was broadcast live by the main television channels.

The vaccination programme will kick off this week starting with health workers, people with underlying medical conditions and the elderly, Health Minister Arben Vitia said.

The government planned earlier to inoculate 60 per cent of the population by the end of the year.

Sunday's batch is part of more than 100,000 doses that Pristina requested from Covax last year, that should continue to be delivered in shipments.

Kosovo, with the population of 1.8 million people, is badly affected by the pandemic which has pushed its already fragile health system to the verge of collapse.

The country has registered nearly 90,000 infections and more than 1,800 deaths from the respiratory disease.

"In a country like ours, such figures resemble a time of war," Kurti stressed.

The clinic for infectious diseases in the capital Pristina, the main medical institution handling the pandemic, has not admitted new patients for hospital treatment for the past several days due to a shortage of beds.

Earlier Sunday, the first batch of 24,000 doses of the AstraZeneca jabs was delivered to neighbouring North Macedonia, also through Covax.

The Covax global vaccine-sharing scheme was set up to ensure that 92 of the poorest countries in the world could access vaccines, with the cost covered by donors.

The initiative was expected to deliver some 238 million doses around the world by the end of May and has far shipped more than 31 million doses.

The scheme is co-led by the Gavi vaccine alliance, the WHO and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.