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BELGRADE, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) – Vaccination against COVID-19 began in Serbia on Thursday and priority was given to beneficiaries of nursing homes, the Health Ministry said.
Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, followed by members of the crisis response team Predrag Kon and Darija Kisic-Tepavcevicm, were the first to be vaccinated.
The ministry said the remaining doses will be given to people over the age of 75 living in nursing homes.
Serbia received the initial 4,875 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday. Another batch would be arriving soon for medical personnel.
Officials said mass immunization could begin in January, when more vaccines are expected to arrive.
The country, which recorded more than 200,000 new cases last month, recently recorded the most serious outbreak of the infection since the start of the epidemic.
In the past 24 hours, Serbia recorded 4,426 new COVID-19 cases and 51 resulting deaths, bringing the total death toll to 2,833.
Currently, 9,672 people are hospitalized throughout the country, of which 309 are connected to respiratory ventilators.
In addition to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine recently approved by the European Union, Serbia also said it will use vaccines produced by Chinese and Russian companies. Final product
