Left out by EU, Balkan nations turn to Russia, China for vaccine
According to ALJAZEERA, nearly two months after the European Union started its vaccination campaigns, four out of six countries in the Western Balkans have yet to begin.
With climbing coronavirus cases and no clear timeline on when vaccines from the COVAX mechanism and EU procurement scheme will be delivered, many countries have been looking towards China and Russia for solutions.
The moves come as wealthy nations have been criticised for taking the bulk of this year’s vaccine supply.
Israel has the highest number of inoculations in the world per capita, followed by the UAE, the UK, Bahrain, the US and EU member states Italy, Germany and France.
To compare, 60 percent of Israel’s population has already received at least one shot, as other countries relying on COVAX and the EU procurement mechanism, such as Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Kosovo, are yet to start vaccine drives.
Montenegro currently has the highest number of coronavirus cases per capita in Europe (9,910 infected per 100,000 people) while Bosnia and Herzegovina has one of the highest COVID related mortality rates in Europe (4,775 deaths with a population of 3.5 million).
To address the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) set up COVAX in April to ensure that all participating countries worldwide, regardless of their wealth will have equal access to vaccines.
AdiCerimagic, an analyst at the EU-based European Stability Initiative said all Western Balkan states signed up to the COVAX and EU procurement mechanism to purchase vaccines “in a transparent and somewhat cheaper way”.
“It was clear from the beginning that this meant that the vaccines’ delivery might not be as quick as for the EU, but it was considered the safest and the cheapest path,” Cerimagic said.
Serbia paid four million euros ($4.8m) to COVAX last year, but with the unexplained prolonged delay from the EU, it began making its own bilateral deals with Russia and China.
The country now leads continental Europe with the highest inoculation rate, having vaccinated 550,000 people so far out of a population of seven million.
