Government has not started the vaccine in northern Kosovo at all

Since late 2020, thousands of Kosovo Serb citizens have been vaccinated in Serbia.

At the Institute of Public Health in Northern Mitrovica, which is part of Serbia's health system, they tell Radio Free Europe that citizens living in the four municipalities in northern Kosovo are vaccinated in Rashka, those from the Anamorawa region (Gymorica, Kamenica, Year) go to Bujanoc, while other citizens from Kosovo also go to Kursumli.

So far, those cities have received the first dose of vaccine against COVID-19, about 24,000 Serbs from Kosovo, while the second dosage has taken over 22.500 people”, it says in response.

The vaccine of northern Serb citizens in Serbia has confirmed the deputy chairman of the Northern Mitrovica municipality, Adrijana Hodzic.

Kosovo forgets vaccine in Serbian municipalities

She told Radio Free Europe that the vaccine launched in Pristina has not started in northern Kosovo, as according to her, citizens of this part of Kosovo have been vaccinated with vaccines provided by the Government of Serbia.

North, I'm aware that citizens were vaccinated in the Race, through the hospital operating in the north. Northern citizens in general have gone there (to Serbia), there has been no vaccine in the country (in Kosovo)”, Hodzic said.

Free Europe Radio has requested answers from the Kosovo Ministry of Health concerning the process of vaccination, but officials of this ministry have not returned responses to the inoculation of citizens in municipalities in northern Kosovo, which are predominantly Serb.

Haxhiu: Vaccination is done with vaccines, not propaganda.

Members of the Commission for Health in the Kosovo Assembly say Health Minister Arben Vitita has failed to provide vaccines against COVID-19.

Bekim Haxhiu, deputy of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), told Radio Free Europe that the Ministry of Health and the Government of Kosovo has been promoting the start of mass vaculation.

He said Kosovo currently does not have enough vaccines.

Thus far, Kosovo has been donated about 180 thousand vaccines, until over 118,000 citizens have been vaccinated. So there are less than 60 thousand vaccines on stock, and with less than 60 thousand vaccines, there is no supposed mass vaccine. But, with propaganda and advertising, there is no vaccine, but with vaccines and concrete work”, Haxhiu said.

Haxhiu does not expect 60 percent of its citizens to be vaccinated by the end of the year, as has Minister of Health Arben Vitita.

The Ministry does not provide information on where the other vaccines are, when will other vaccines arrive? If you keep the price of contracting it and leaving too much room for doubt on the price of contracting vaccines. There is no transparency in this process, the ministry is completely closed in terms of this” process, Haxhiu said.

MP Haxhiu said the vaccine should take place throughout the territory of Kosovo, even though part of Kosovo's citizens according to him have been vaccinated in Serbia and Albania.

Former Health Minister in the past government, Armend Zemaj, told Radio Free Europe that there is no mass inoculation, but there are only optical fraud.

We're the worst place in the vaccine, especially the second dose has barely exceeded 10,000. The vaccines will come, but with this logic will come at the end of the year, even then what is the result of preserving public health”, Zemaj said.

Zemaj said the Health Ministry has so far shown no information to vaccinate in the northern part, nor to vaccinate in other Serb-run municipalities, but neither to citizens who have been vaccinated outside the territory of the Republic of Kosovo.

Few vaccines for mass vaccine

The Ministry of Health in Kosovo on 15 June (June) launched the mass vaccine campaign, promising that 60 per cent of Kosovo's citizens will be vaccinated by the end of the year.

But at the current rate, it is hard to reach the number of 320 thousand citizens vaccinated within the month, as promised by Health Minister Arben Vitita.

By the end of the year, we will have about 2 million doses of anti vaccines available - CO VID, and if we do one count, it would be possible within the month to vaccinate 320 thousand citizens”, Vitia declared on June 15th, where it revealed that mass inoculation will continue until December 15th.

Massoculation begins, the MSH says there are sufficient doses

From the start of the vaccination campaign in Kosovo on 29 March this year through Friday, according to the Co-ordinator of the Vacination Centre at the October 1st Hall in Pristina, Niman Bardhi, about 130 thousand Kosovo citizens have been vaccinated.

The overall stock of doses given to these approaches at the country level is over 129 thousand and 200 vaccines”, White said before reporters Friday.

Kosovo has accepted vaccine donations from the World Health Organisation's COVAX programme and the European Union.

In May, Kosovo authorities have announced they have signed a contract with the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer for the purchase of over 1 million doses of Pfizer vaccines/ BioNTech.