Percorso:ANSA > Nuova Europa > Bosnia Erzegovina > Vaccines: Borrell, happy to see doses in Balkans via Covax

Vaccines: Borrell, happy to see doses in Balkans via Covax

The WHO mechanism for low-middle-income countries

01 April, 15:26
(ANSA) - BRUSSELS, 01 APR - "Happy to see that the first vaccines purchased through Covax have arrived in the Western Balkans. Only united can we defeat the pandemic." European high representative for foreign affairs Josep Borrell wrote on Twitter.

Albania was the first country to receive the first batch of 38,400 doses of AstraZeneca via Covax on 12 March, followed by Bosnia-Herzegovina, to which the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company delivered 49,800 vaccines from a week ago. Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Kosovo received the first batch of 24,000 doses each of AstraZeneca.

All the Western Balkans, including Serbia, adhere to the Covax initiative, the World Health Organization (WHO) mechanism, which guarantees middle and low-income countries access to anti-Covid vaccines. With 2.2 bn euros, the EU and the member states are among the initiative's prominent donors.

Delays in vaccine deliveries through Covax have hindered countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, which initially relied only on this tool for serum procurement.

In recent weeks, following Serbia's mass vaccine campaign, which mainly uses China's Sinopharm and Russian Sputnik V, all countries, except for Kosovo, have begun to look East to buy vaccines. (ANSA).

© Copyright ANSA - All rights reserved