After Serbia in February donated 8,000 Pfizer vaccines for North Macedonia’s health workers, the first half of Serbia’s second donation of 40,000 Sputnik V vaccines arrived on Thursday. They will be included in the mass vaccination that started on Wednesday with people over 77 getting the 24,000 AstraZeneca doses received recently through the Covax Facility.
Additionally, the state is procuring 500,000 Sinovac doses, according to Prime Minister Zoran Zaev on Thursday. The country is also expecting 800,000 Pfizer vaccines; the remaining of the 100,000 AstraZeneca doses through Covax; and more vaccines already ordered from Russia and China.
They will arrive in April or May for a total of 2.6 million vaccine doses, enough to immunize 1.3 million citizens, PM Zaev said, urging citizens to schedule their vaccination appointments as soon as possible.“All vaccines have been tested, internationally tested. The sooner the immunization process is completed, the sooner the fight against this invisible enemy, Covid-19, will end,” the prime minister said.
With interest in citizens growing, the goal of 1,300,000 people vaccinated could be reached, Zaev added, highlighting the importance of getting booster doses on time.
He told reporters he had applied for his own appointment online and his government ministers did the same, to wait their turn according to the country’s mass vaccination program.
The prime minister noted he wouldn’t hesitate to receive any of the vaccines.
“I trust all vaccines and I want to encourage our people. We should definitely accept any vaccine,” he said. “When it is our turn—I, my family, my colleagues from the Government—whatever vaccine is offered, we will receive it.”
Meanwhile, the Boris Trajkovski Sports Arena in Skopje is being readied to be the largest vaccination site in the country. A total of 48 vaccination points have been set up for simultaneous vaccination, with a capacity to vaccinate about 5,000 citizens per day from 8 am to 8 pm, according to Minister of Health Venko Filipche.
He said the arena was the best place to administer the Sputnik V vaccine, which comes in vials containing ten doses. Once opened, the vials need to be administered within two hours, Filipche said.
He added that the country’s mass vaccination, which started on Wednesday nationwide, is going well. Vaccination for people over 77 as a risk group started in Skopje, Prilep, Ohrid, Gostivar, Shtip, Kumanovo, Veles, Bitola, Strumica and Kavadarci, with other vaccination points opening on Friday.
Filipche reiterated the country was waiting for an official approval from the European Medicines Agency for continuing to administer the AstraZeneca vaccine after it was suspended for some age groups soon after the arrival of 24,000 doses through Covax.
According to latest figures, since the onset of the pandemic, North Macedonia has logged 131,424 Covid-19 cases, and the death toll has reached 3,810.
The health minister said other countries in the region had higher mortality rates.
“Every time there is a new surge of cases,” he said, the mortality rate increases. We are no exception, it literally is the rule everywhere.
“What I can responsibly say is that backed by experts, infectious disease specialists, physicians specializing in internal medicine, every patient is approached as professionally as possible and given everything in terms of the therapeutic approach based on the same treatment options used around the world.”
Filipche also announced the upcoming arrival of a medication based on a specific antibody to treat Covid-19. It should arrive in two weeks’ time, he added.
According to the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party, the country needs a larger quantity of vaccines to be delivered faster through the Covax Facility, party leader Hristijan Mickovski said.
