Croatia President, cabinet get Covid-19 vaccines publicly to fight fears

Croatia's president and most of the cabinet received coronavirus jabs before TV cameras on Thursday as part of a campaign to counter widespread vaccine hesitancy among the public.

Some 20,000 people in a population of 4.2 million have so far received the jab since Croatia launched its vaccination campaign with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on December 27.

The first doses were given to retirement home residents and healthcare workers, and patients with chronic diseases and people over age 65 are next in line.

But nearly half of respondents -- 44 per cent -- to an Ipsos survey in mid-December said they did not plan to get inoculated.

46 were in favour of a shot while 10 per cent were undecided, according to the poll.

Sceptics voiced fears that the vaccines were developed too fast and unease over possible side effects.

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"I urge everyone... to get vaccinated, it certainly helps," President Zoran Milanovic told reporters after getting his jab at the presidency.

Ten cabinet ministers were also publicly vaccinated, while Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and six other ministers already infected with the coronavirus did not take part.

Experts insist that with clinical trials carried out on tens of thousands of volunteers, any major risks would have already been detected.

But rare side effects, or those affecting specific patient profiles, cannot be categorically ruled out.

Croatia has ordered some 5.6 million vaccines doses so far, including those of Pfizer-BioNtech, Moderna and Oxford-AstraZeneca.

Since the start of the pandemic, the country has registered more than 2,00,000 coronavirus infections and more than 4,000 deaths.