December 23, 2020 – The Croatian Government has announced that COVID-19 vaccinations in Croatia will begin on Sunday.
As Index.hr reports, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said today at the press conference in the National and University Library that the vaccination will begin on Sunday, December 27, 2020.
“Safety is based on controlled clinical trials. Vaccinations will start on December 27, and it will take place over the next few months. We want as many of our fellow citizens to be vaccinated, and preferably everyone. That is why we have a clear debate that as many people as possible decide to get vaccinated. We aim for 70 percent of our fellow citizens to be vaccinated,” Plenković said, reports Večernji list.
People in nursing homes will first get vaccinated
The vaccination will be free and voluntary. The first to be vaccinated will be those at risk because of their age or illness and their type of work.
“The priority groups are health professionals who are in contact with COVID-19 patients and users of social care homes. In the second phase, the elderly and those with chronic diseases will be vaccinated. The vaccine is coming on Saturday, it will be distributed to counties on Sunday, and mostly those in nursing homes will be vaccinated,” said Krunoslav Capak, director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health.
Only the documentation content has changed, so now pregnant women and those who are planning to become pregnant can be vaccinated. There is no evidence that the vaccine acts on the fetus and pregnancy.
“We entered the negotiations on vaccine procurement with a timely response from the Government. We are a small market for large companies, and we often have problems with regular supply. We have secured maximum quantities of vaccines. When everyone gets the vaccine, we will get it too. That will happen on Saturday,” Capak said.
Campaign ‘Think of others, get vaccinated’
The Croatian Government has so far ordered 5,905,000 doses of the vaccine, of which one million from Pfizer, over two million from AstraZeneca, one million from Moderna, 900,000 from Johnson&Johnson, and 300,000 from CureVac.
Prime Minister Plenković said the vaccination plan’s success depends on how many people will want to be vaccinated. He called on all media outlets to join the campaign under the slogan, “Think of others, get vaccinated.”
“The Croatian Institute of Public Health has launched a campaign to promote vaccination. This is a key message. The arrival of the vaccine is an encouraging message, a message that gives hope for the normalization of life, social, and economic activities,” Plenković explained. “This is an unprecedented crisis that has changed the world,” he added.
Plenković said there is a loud but small group of people who oppose vaccination, but that there are many more people who want to be vaccinated than the vaccines that will come in the first tranche. Capak added that there would be enough vaccines for everyone.
“The arrival of the vaccine is a hope for the future. This is the moment when we come to the situation that by the end of March, we have about 270,000 doses of vaccine,” Plenković said.
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