Not everyone in the world will be able to be vaccinated at the same time, and as Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 30th of July, 2020, Krunoslav Capak commented on Wednesday night on the news that Croatia has booked a million and a half doses of the coronavirus vaccine so far.
“Croatia will definitely buy that vaccine and pay the price in the end. This is very similar to procuring a pandemic flu vaccine. In the event of a pandemic, Croatia pays a reservation. Then, when the virus is isolated and the vaccine is produced, we’ll quickly get our turn because we’re paying for the reservation. Those who don’t pay for the reservation will come later and will not be able to vaccinate their population in time,” explained Krunoslav Capak for Nova TV.
“The European Union is doing it, we’re not doing it. We only report to the EU on the quantity we’re interested in having, and they conduct a public tender, agree on the price and agree on the order,” he said when asked which company the vaccine was reserved for.
When asked who the 1.5 million doses are intended for, he explained that these are intended for risk groups: ”These are people over the age of 50 and are people with chronic diseases. It’s also important that healthcare workers get vaccinated,” announced Krunoslav Capak.
“I think there will certainly be an interest, but it won’t be mandatory,” he announced, adding that the vaccine would certainly not be developed this year because a large number of people had to be tested and then registered. Only then does production follow.
“Not even six months will be long enough produce enough doses for the whole world, but it will take about a year or a year and a half. Not everyone in the world will be able to be vaccinated at the same time. But given that we have this mechanism of joint procurement with the European Union and EU countries, I think we’ll be among the first,” said Capak.
He recommended that citizens download the application for monitoring coronavirus, saying that he doesn’t believe that it will be obligatory, but also that it is harmless and that it does not violate anyone’s rights. He told lawmakers who refuse to wear masks that it is recommended to put them on because although it doesn’t protect them at the level of 100 percent, it does reduce the risk of contracting the infection.
“Of course, it’s impossible to fill the [Zagreb] Arena for 5,000 people in these conditions. I’ll remind you that the last such concert was held at the beginning of the epidemic and that it was a concert held by Nina Badrić.
Under these conditions, it’s simply impossible to do that and it would be very bad to do so. We gave the musicians the opportunity to organize concerts under the new normal conditions. However, there is a possibility of expanding that number. We have limited [gatherings of people] to 1000. But it’s possible to submit a request to the [national civil protection] headquarters to increase the number,” replied the head of the CNIPH to the complaints of the entertainment industry that their work was denied.
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