First doses of coronavirus vaccine arrive in Croatia
- by croatiaweek
- in News
(Photo: HZJZ)
ZAGREB, Dec 26 (Hina/CW) – Croatian Public Health Institute director Krunoslav Capak and distribution coordinators have received the first 9,750 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine at 6 am today.
The vaccine must be stored at a temperature of -70 degrees, and tomorrow, December 27, distribution to counties across Croatia will begin, the Croatian Public Health Institute said.
According to Capak, this is the most important event since the beginning of the pandemic.
“From tomorrow, we will start vaccinating the most endangered groups of the population in the entire territory of the Republic of Croatia. The vaccine will be distributed tomorrow to county institutes that will organise vaccinations for users of nursing homes, health care staff working with the COVID vaccine and emergency medicine workers,” he said.
(Photo: HZJZ)
Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said earlier that Croatia had so far secured 5,905,000 doses of vaccine.
A million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have been pre-ordered, 2.7 million doses of AstraZeneca, 900,000 from Johnson&Johnson, a million from Moderna and 300,000 from CureVac and Plenkovic underscored that the aim is to immunise 70% of the country’s population.
(Photo: HZJZ)
Vaccination is free and voluntary while the rollout plan the government adopted on Wednesday foresees vaccinations to be administered throughout the country simultaneously, he said.
“We want as many our citizens as possible to be vaccinated. The success of the vaccination plan depends on how many people will be inoculated and that is why we need to a well-argumented discussion for as many people to decide to be vaccinated,” he underscored.
(Photo: HZJZ)
The experts have said that if 70% of the population are vaccinated, we will be protected. We are aiming for 70% of our citizens to be vaccinated. That will certainly confine the pandemic that has cost so many lives in Croatia and the world, said Plenkovic.
(Photo: HZJZ)
The vaccine gives us hope for a normal life next year, he said and added that about 270,000 doses of the vaccine are expected by the end of March.
The dynamics of the vaccination will go ahead as usual for seasonal flu vaccination, the premier said, however, the system will be enhanced due to the large number of people that need to be immunised soon as possible.
(Photo: HZJZ)
I believe that Croatian citizens will recognise the benefits of vaccination all the more so because nothing has saved more lives in history than vaccine, he said.
