Novi List reports that Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said that there should be around one million vaccine doses in Croatia by May 1, which is somewhat slower than expected, and added that it is a pity that Croatia ordered the most vaccines from AstraZeneca because they have now slowed down delivery.
“The Government of the Republic of Croatia has so far ordered 6.8 million doses of coronavirus vaccine, and so far about 430,000 have arrived. By May 1, there should be about a million doses of vaccine in Croatia. All this is somewhat slower than expected,” Plenković said in an interview with HTV’s Dnevnik.
He also believes that the problems arise in the huge orders that have come to pharmaceutical companies, not only from EU members but also from other countries worldwide.
“After Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson managed to discover the vaccine in record time, that vaccine was approved and started to be produced, the production capacities of such large quantities are not so large that the delivery dynamics would be as fast as we would all like,” he said.
He also said that in Brussels, he expressed Croatia’s strong interest in accelerating this dynamic because we are a tourist country and a country that wants to enter the tourist season with as many vaccinated Croatian citizens as possible, then also to ensure mechanisms at the EU level to ensure that freedom of movement is made securely.
He also announced that the European Commission would come out next week with a proposal to confirm three categories of citizens – those who have either been vaccinated or have a negative test or have overcome Covid.
Speaking about the distribution of vaccines, Plenković said that since the summer when negotiations with pharmaceutical companies began, Croatia had been gradually receiving signals from the European Commission on negotiations with those companies. During the summer, all available information indicated that AstraZeneca vaccines would be completed as soon as possible and approved as soon as possible, “but then something got complicated.”
“At the moment, it is a pity that we ordered the most vaccines from AstraZeneca because they have now slowed down somewhat. However, once it is consolidated, we could get very, very large amounts of AstraZeneca vaccine,” he said.
Plenković also commented on the temporary suspension of vaccinating with AstraZeneca after some fatalities were reported once having the jab. A 91-year-old woman died in Croatia after being vaccinated with this vaccine, too. He said that when he saw the news, he immediately contacted the Minister of Health, Vili Beroš, who was in contact with the director of HALMED (Croatian Medicines Agency).
He also stated that according to the data they currently have, there is no causal link between the death of the 91-year-old woman and receiving the vaccine. But, he added, they are still investigating it and will also consult with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to see for certain.
He also said that the AstraZeneca vaccination would not be temporarily suspended at this time, emphasizing that these are decisions that must be made by the experts and that this is not any political voluntarism.
Plenković also said that it was not true that 30 percent of citizens no longer wanted to be vaccinated with AstraZeneca’s vaccine due to fear. “As far as I understand from the director of the CNIPH, that is not true,” he said.
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