Bosnia begins vaccinating with Russia's Sputnik V jab

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Bosnia started vaccinating against the novel coronavirus on Friday, using Russia's Sputnik V jab, but only medical staff will be inoculated for now, given the small supplies available.

Bosnia is now the third Western Balkan nation to begin vaccinating against COVID-19, after Serbia and Albania.

In the region, European Union member Croatia has also started vaccinating.

"We have been waiting for the vaccine for nearly a year and I trust it," said Vlado Djajic, the head of a hospital in the northern town of Banja Luka, who was the first to receive the jab.

The Balkan nation of 3.5 million people has registered 5,000 COVID-19 deaths so far.

More than 125,00 cases have been registered, but testing is not yet widespread, with patients with serious symptoms mainly targeted so far.

Bosnia, namely its Serb-run half of Republika Srpska, received 2,000 doses of the Russian .

An additional 200,000 are expected by the end of the month and 200,000 more in March, according to the authorities.

Since the 1990s war, Bosnia consists of the highly-autonomous entities—Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation.

The government hopes to receive 200,000 Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines in mid-February through the United Nations' Covax programme, set up to ensure fair access to lower-income nations.

Bosnia ordered 1.2 million doses of jabs through Covax and nearly 900,000 through the EU.

© 2021 AFP

Citation: Bosnia begins vaccinating with Russia's Sputnik V jab (2021, February 12) retrieved 29 March 2024 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-02-bosnia-vaccinating-russia-sputnik-jab.html
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