An hour after Prime Minister Zoran Zaev protested that none of the pharma companies have came in to help the Government in finding vaccines, he was denied by Blagoj Mehandziski, head of the major Zegin chain of pharmacies.

The Government did not allow us to use our connections. We could’ve procured the vaccines, Mehandziski said.

The comment is a response to the recent scandal in which Healthcare Minister Venko Filipce was found to have tried to use a shell company to purchase vaccines from the Chinese Sinopharm manufacturer. This apparent attempt on the part of the Minister to get politically linked businessmen in a position where they will take a cut of the deal meant that legitimate companies were sidelined in the deal.

VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski called Zaev out for his latest statement. “Not even an hour went by and Zaev was caught”, Mickoski said.

Mehandziski said that the vaccines were not being procured only through the manufacturers, but through traders as well. “We have connections there, we could have done it, but we were not allowed to”, he said.