After donating 8,000 doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines to North Macedonia on Sunday, today Serbia donated 2,000 Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccines to Montenegro. The Minister of Health of Montenegro Jelena Borovinić Bojović said that “The government has conducted various bilateral negotiations in the last two months to try to secure the vaccine and the first results were with our friend and neighbor Serbia.” In the past weeks the minister has confirmed that Montenegro expects to receive 50,000 doses of Russian Sputnik V vaccine in the first quarter of the year, and 50,000 more in the second quarter.
Until now Montenegro has not yet started the vaccination process, although the number of infected cases with COVID-19 continues to be one of the highest rates in the Western Balkans. Yesterday, 476 more positive cases were registered in the country, bringing the total number of the infection cases from the beginning of the pandemic to 69,770, for a population of 621,873. Overall, 910 people have lost their lives due to the pandemic in Montenegro.
Through this donation, Serbia continue its path of becoming a regional leader in the vaccination process. Until now the country has vaccinated around 600,000 people, and was one of the first in Europe to start the vaccination early in December with the Pfizer vaccine. Serbia benefited not only of being one of the first country in the world to have signed with Pfizer, but also to secure vaccine in an early phase from Russia and China. Its success derives from a well elaborated foreign policy, which aims to establish good relations with all the big actors, such as the EU, Russia, China and the United States.
