Where did Kosovo fail to obtain the vaccine?

Serbia has started vaccinating its population against the Coronavirus on December 24, 2020, using Pfizer companies' vaccine. BioNTech. So far this country has received 1.9 million doses of vaccines against it. COVID-19.

In Albania, the vaccine has also started on January 11th, and now the achievement of the US company's vaccine doses of Pfizer is done almost every week.

In northern Macedonia, the vaccine has started on February 17th with 4,680 doses of Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine, donated to him by the government of Serbia.

Similarly, Montenegro has initiated vaccines in February with the Russian vaccine against Coronavirus, Sputnik V, which has benefited as a donation from Serbia. This country has so far received 7,000 doses of Sputnik V.

Politics was a priority, not vaccine.

But what affected Kosovo still without a vaccine?

Hannah Xhemajli, a specialist in researching global health policies, in a proposal for Radio Free Europe, says that Kosovo analyses taking vaccines even because of poor economics, as well as because of lobbying disability.

“We have toppled the government in March last year, creating a huge instability in our state. This was done at a time when we had to gather all the forces, not only the Ministry of Health, because the lobby for vaccine is not dependent on a ministry, but it is an interministerial co-operation. There had to be more physical lobbies with private companies and other countries, so if we can't buy it, we can take it as a donation”, Xhemajli says.

Or, according to it, there are many other factors that affected the failure of the vaccine so far in Kosovo.

It has penalised us in this situation even because we are not members of the World Health Organization”, Xhemajli says.

Proper Negotiation Lost

Kosovo enters countries with an undeveloped economy. Its 2021 budget amounts to 2.4 billion euros.

From this budget, 40m euros have been earmarked for the purchase of vaccines and for needs related to the coronary pandemic.

But this economic level that Kosovo has, for the chairman of the Kosovo Economic House, Berat Rukiqi, was not the problem of taking the vaccine. He told Radio Free Europe that while the countries of the region have managed to secure it, Kosovo's failure is within.

“The windows have been budgeted. I think we had to have another negotiating approach, use some contacts, co-operation networks, so we could have at least the first doses”, Rukiqi says, adding that any delay in the beginning of the vaccine will cause damage to economic recovery.

Eyes on COVAX, didn't pledge tools

Isme Humolli, professional emergency official of the World Health Organisation (OBSH) in Kosovo, told Radio Free Europe that the industrialised developed states have made a commitment to the means when the production of the vaccine started, until Kosovo has not done so, as it is based on the COVAX programme.

Kosovo has separate money for the purchase of vaccines through World Bank support, which is dedicated to buying additional doses, along with what comes from COVAX”, Humwall said.

WHO's COVAX programme aims to disseminate vaccines in poor countries.

For the head of the Federation of Kosovo Health, Blerim Syla, the money has not been a problem, for Kosovo to take the vaccine, but for him, it has not been lobbied properly.

We've been doing more politics on this pandemic. Political parties have had no strategy for how to get out of this situation. The moment they saw that the pandemic was, they had to target the festival vaccine manufacturer because it's known that someone will produce it and thus policy has failed”, Syla told REL.

The month of February was said consistently by incumbent Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti and incumbent Health Minister Armend Zemja that it will be the month when the vaccine arrives in Kosovo, but that has not yet happened.

Hoti, at a meeting held on February 26th with incumbent Health Minister Zemaj, representatives of the Kosovo National Institute of Public Health and the University Clinical Hospital Service of Kosovo, has announced that they are awaiting the first vaccine contingent.

Isme Hummolli from O The BSH said about REL that in the coming days, Kosovo will reach its first vaccine container from COVAX. This container, according to her, will have 9,600 doses.

Kosovo is expected to receive 100800 doses of vaccine produced by British company AstraZeneca and Oxford University.