(ANSA-XINHUA) - BELGRADE, FEB 15 - As Hungary joined Serbia
in spearheading mass inoculation with China's Sinopharm COVID-19
vaccine in Europe, other European countries are struggling
against a vaccine delivery crisis and exploring a way out of
lockdown and into economic recovery. In around a month, 14
percent of Serbia's 6.5-million population received their first
doses of vaccine against COVID-19, thanks to the 1.5 million
Chinese-made doses. Following its neighbor, Hungary on Jan. 31
announced that it has reached a deal with Sinopharm, which will
enable a mass immunization of 2.5 million people. As the first
shipment is supposed to arrive next week, Hungary is bound to
become the first European Union (EU) member to sign up for
Chinese vaccines. "This deal will speed up vaccination, which
could save the lives of thousands of people and contribute to
lifting restrictions sooner," said Hungarian Foreign Minister
Peter Szijjarto. Also on Jan. 31, German Health Minister Jens
Spahn said he is "open" to the use of vaccines from Russia or
China in Germany, while Markus Soeder, minister-president of the
German state of Bavaria, called on the European supervision body
to test Russian and Chinese vaccines "as soon as possible." A
shipment of Sinopharm vaccines will arrive in Bosnia and
Herzegovina soon too, as one of its two entities, Republika
Srpska (RS), ordered them on Feb. 8, Minister of Health and
Social Welfare of RS Alen Seranic told Xinhua. RS institutions
have been following all the scientific effects and references of
vaccines from all producers, including Chinese ones, and the
efficiency, quality, and safety of vaccines are the three
criteria that all vaccines entering RS must fulfill, said
Seranic. "Based on other countries' experiences, where Chinese
vaccines have been already approved, we decided that we also
need to acquire a certain number of vaccines from China," said
Seranic. "We already ordered vaccines for 20 percent of our
population," he said, adding that ordering vaccines from China
"will make us happy to be able to offer different kinds of
vaccines to the citizens." Earlier this month, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron expressed
openness of their countries to any vaccines approved by the
European Medicines Agency (EMA), which has so far only given
green light to vaccines of Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and
AstraZeneca. The shortage of approved vaccines in Europe has
been drawing increasing public criticism and prompting demands
for alternative solutions. Addressing such concerns, European
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen admitted on Wednesday
that the EU is lagging behind in combating the virus and it was
"too optimistic" about the mass production of the vaccine. It
takes an additional three or four weeks to get the EMA's
approval, which is "an investment in trust and safety," she
said, while announcing a new regulatory framework as a future
solution to speed up the process. And yet, the public in the EU
member countries seems not equally patient, as saving lives and
ending lockdowns have become imperative. "If there are no
vaccines, we cannot vaccinate," Todor Kantardjiev, director of
the Bulgarian National Center of Infectious and Parasitic
Diseases, said last month, complaining about the poor progress
of the inoculation program. "The state will look for other
options and we will not hesitate to buy any vaccine that is
effective and harmless and that is recognized by Europe,
including, of course, from Russia and China," Kantardjiev said.
In Serbia, the Sinopharm's vaccine is welcomed with full trust,
and the early inoculation is seen as an opportunity, according
to Ivona Ladjevac, head of the center for the Belt and Road
Initiative at the Institute of International Politics and
Economics in Serbia. "We should use this opportunity," said
Ladjevac. "Serbia can do something like Israel, the first
country that will finish this mass vaccination and get back to
normal. We can achieve something like that too." Serbian
President Aleksandar Vucic said in an interview with Xinhua that
most people in the country are vaccinated with Sinopharm
vaccine. "There is not such a country in Europe in which you can
find that level of trust (in Chinese vaccine) that you can see
here in Serbia," he said. "People here are very satisfied and we
are very proud that we succeeded in delivering such good things
for the better health of our people and for the future of this
country," said the Serbian president. (ANSA-XINHUA).
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