North Macedonia received today its first 3,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine, out of a total of 200,000 vaccines ordered from Russia. So far Skopje has managed to get only 8,000 Pfizer vaccine doses, which were given by Serbia. As in most of the countries, even here the first to get the vaccine were the medical staff. Regarding the Sputnik V vaccine, the Minister of Health of North Macedonia Venko Filipče, said that the vaccine is safe, and will be used to vaccinate other vulnerable categories, such as the elders, or people suffering from chronicle diseases. In North Macedonia, yesterday were registered 722 new infections from COVID-19, bringing the actual active cases to around 9,100, while the death tally is 3,185. According to the opposition, the country is far behind with the vaccination process in the region, and they have blamed the government for using the arrival of small doses of vaccine to make propaganda while the country has one of the worst records of deaths in the world. According to statista.com, North Macedonia has registered 1,519 deaths per 1 million people.
On the occasion of the arrival of the first doses of the Russian vaccine in Skopje, the Russian Ambassador in North Macedonia, Sergei Bazdnikin declared that “the vaccine is safe and efficient.” The Russian vaccine is getting more and more attention, as the European Union has officially started its review process of the vaccine. Until now, two member states, Hungary and Slovakia, have already started to use Sputnik V. In the case of Albania, so far, the Albanian government has tried to follow the same rules and regulations as the EU. Nevertheless, during the joint press conference in Brussels last week with Borrell and Várhelyi, Prime Minister Rama said that his government was looking beyond the “desirable sources of vaccine,” a declaration that pushed many media to doubt whether Albania was already in contact with China or Russia for their vaccines.
