BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) – The Prime Minister of the Czech Republic visited Serbia on Wednesday to learn more about the Balkan nation’s mass vaccination program with Chinese and Russian vaccines that have not yet been approved by the country’s drug regulator. European Union.
Czech leader Andrej Babis has been seeking vaccines outside the EU’s common program after delays in deliveries from EU-approved Western pharmaceutical companies. With a team of experts, Babis also visited Hungary last week, which was the first EU country to give the green light to the Russian vaccine.
Thanks to Chinese and Russian vaccines, Serbia is currently in second place in Europe, after Great Britain, in the rate of implementation of vaccination per capita.
“I have tried to gather as much information about other vaccines that have not been approved,” said Babis in Belgrade, after a meeting with Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic.
Babis told reporters ahead of the trip that the Czech Republic is not ready to use the Russian Sputnik V vaccine before receiving approval from the European Medicines Agency by the EU. He said in Belgrade on Wednesday that his EU country wants to be “ready” as soon as approval comes.
“It is extremely important for us to get as many safe vaccines as possible,” said Babis. “We must abandon politics and talk about people’s health, because the situation (of the virus) in the Czech Republic is not good.”
The Czech Republic, a country of 10 million people, has recorded more than 1 million infections and has seen more than 17,600 confirmed deaths from viruses.
So far, Serbia has vaccinated more than half a million people, mainly with the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and, to a lesser extent, with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Serbian populist leadership has cultivated close ties with China and Russia, which vie for influence in the strategically important region of southwest Europe.
Brnabic said the country’s experience with the three vaccines has been “excellent”.
Babis’ visit included a tour of a mass inoculation center in Belgrade. Authorities announced a new round of mass vaccinations, with another 500,000 doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine due to arrive by the end of Wednesday.
The Czech Ministry of Health has announced that delivery of the Modern vaccine scheduled for Monday will be delayed by a week and that only half of the expected naps, 44,000, will arrive.
___
Follow all AP pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak