After the MAN association of journalists, and the independent police union, now the SKM chamber of commerce turned to its partners in Serbia and secured whopping 10,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines. This is actually more than the total secured by the Zaev regime so far – they had an 8,000 Pfizer vaccines donation (also from Serbia) and managed to buy 3,000 Sputnik vaccines from Russia.

Macedonia has one of the worst inoculation rates in Europe, as well as the third worst death rate from the epidemic, and Healthcare Minister Venko Filipce botched the most likely serious procurement deal – with China – when he tried to insert a shell company registered in American Samoa into the contract, prompting the Chinese to call the whole thing off.

Meanwhile Serbia is awash in vaccines from various producers and Macedonian citizens, fed up with waiting on Zaev and Filipce to find vaccines for their own public system, are turning to Serbia. MAN took 100 journalists to the border city of Vranje to receive the Astra Zeneca vaccine, and now the police union negotiated a similar, larger deal with its Serbian counterparts. And the biggest deal so far, the 10,000 doses negotiated by the SKMchamber of commerce,will go to businessmen who need to travel and keep the economy from collapse, as well as to workers in essential fields.