Health Minister Venko Filipche said Wednesday that all vaccines the country has provided and will provide, including AstraZeneca jabs, are safe.
A team of experts is following all reports by national medicines agencies and will issue recommendations in line with official information, he said.
Speaking at a news conference, Filipche said he didn’t have a problem to be vaccinated with the AstraZeneca jab after several European countries suspended its use.
“Experts from our team follow the side-effects from this vaccines, as well as the decisions of national agencies and we’ll definitely make decisions according to the official recommendations by the European Medicines Agency (EMA),” he said, adding the European agency would present decisions on further steps regarding the AstraZeneca vaccine on Thursday.
Answering journalists’ questions, Minister Filipche said that about 100,000 vaccines should arrive through the COVAX mechanism by early April. He, however, warned about further delays.
Negotiations, Filipche said, are under way with Chinese and Russian representatives of the manufacturers producing COVID-19 vaccines, however there is no concrete date yet when they could arrive.
“But, we have a reason to believe that it could be in early April, which would mark the start of the mass vaccination campaign, because the system is fully prepared,” he stated.
The Minister confirmed that negotiations with Pfizer are ongoing and that the American company has introduced stricter criteria for all countries signing contracts to provide the vaccine.
Furthermore, Minister Filipche said that the vaccination of health workers has been successful with 5,300 medical professionals being vaccinated so far.
