Around 172,000 individuals have been vaccinated with at least one shot of the Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sinovac and Sputnik V vaccine in Albania since the beginning of the vaccination process. The numbers of vaccinated individuals have risen especially after Albania acquired 192,000 doses of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine last Sunday, which helped the start of the mass inoculation campaign. During the last week, around 15,000 vaccinations per day have been reported across the country, with many city centres functioning as vaccination hubs. According to the agreement between Albania and the Turkish company “Keymen Ilaç Sanayive Ticaret”, besides the initial 192,000 doses, 308 thousand doses of Sinovac vaccine are expected also to arrive within the next two months in the country. Overall, Albania will receive 1 million doses of Sinovac vaccines.
Many experts have pointed out that Prime Minister Rama’s position regarding the use of the Chinese and Russian vaccine changed drastically in the last weeks, compared to the beginning of the year. While initially, Rama was quite direct in refusing the vaccines which were not approved by FDA/EMA, the next parliamentary elections of 25 April have probably put pressure to the Albanian government to start the massive vaccination as soon as possible, regardless of the origin of the vaccine. According to Reuters,“Sinovac’s vaccine showed varied efficacy readings of between 50.65% and 83.5% based on trials from Brazil, Turkey and Indonesia.”
In the last days, the Albanian media reported two deaths of two individuals, within 48 hours after taking the Sinovac vaccine. A 74-year-old from Berat with hypertension suffered from a thrombosis a day after taking the Chinese Sinovac vaccine, while an 88-year-old from Tirana suffering from lung problems lost his life two days after taking the vaccine. According to the Head of Department of Epidemiology and Control of Infectious Disease, Silvia Bino, there was no correlation between the deaths and the Chinese vaccine. In the last 24 hours, 9 people (from 37 to 79 years old) lost their battle with COVID-19 in Albania, while 341 citizens resulted positive with the virus. From the beginning of the pandemic, 2,256 people have lost their lives due to COVID-19 in Albania.
