Health Minister Venko Filipche says the country could reach herd immunity by the end of the summer, i.e. about 600,000 citizens could be vaccinated by then, which, he noted, is 50 percent of the population planned for vaccination.

“So far, nearly 300,000 citizens have been vaccinated, and the plan is to vaccinate another 300,000 people in the coming period. I believe that by the end of the summer we would reach a percentage of immunized people which we’ll be able to say it’s herd immunity,” Filipche said in response to a reporter’s question during Tuesday’s joint press conference with Chinese Ambassador to North Macedonia Zhang Zuo.

The Health Minister added that the impact of the coronavirus variants is still not known, but stressed that experience from other countries, including China, shows that the vaccines are a very important factor in the fight against the pandemic, preventing severe forms of the disease.

According to him, given that by the end of this month 500,000 vaccines will arrive from China’s Sinovac, as well as more doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, it will be possible to vaccinate 15,000 to 20,000 people a day.

Filipche urged citizens to apply for vaccination at vakcinacija.mk, pointing out that it is the most appropriate and efficient way to plan the process