Macedonia has no vaccines other than the 8,000 Pfizer doses donated by Serbia, and Healthcare Minister Venko Filipce doesn’t sound too sure when he announced a delivery of 3,000 Russian vaccines on Sunday, warned the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party. Filipce already misled the public numerous times, announcing the arrival of Western produced vaccines in February, and then what that failed to materialize – a large shipment of Sinopharm vaccines by the end of February.

Worst of all, Filipce refused to purchase the Russian vaccine in December. Had he purchased it, had he initiated the negotiations on time, how many of those who are now waiting would have been vaccinated?, VMRO asked in a press statement.

Macedonia is currently facing a new wave of the pandemic and numbers of infections are quickly going up. At the same time, the Serbian donation of Pfizer vaccines was enough only for the most critical medical workers. The Russian Embassy informed that it was in contact with the Macedonian Government early in the vaccine development process and offered the Sputnik V vaccine, but that for a long time there was no reply.