The priority of the Government seems to be to decide which company will be allowed to import the vaccines and turn a profit on them, rather than prepare for their distribution, said doctor Igor Nikolov, head of the VMRO-DPMNE committee on healthcare.

His comments come after the shocking announcement from Serbia that its planned donation of 8,000 Pfizer vaccines to Macedonia will not be made because Macedonia is not prepared to receive and distribute the vaccines, and has not even licensed the vaccine.

This is the second major failure of the Macedonian Government to secure even a donation of vaccines, after a promise from Bulgaria to share some of its vaccines came to nothing. Macedonia hasn’t received any vaccines from other sources either. Meanwhile, the public healthcare sector has been hit by serious corruption scandals.