Kosovo became the last European country to kick off a COVID-19 inoculation campaign when Prime Minister Albin Kurti was vaccinated live on television on March 29 after the country received a batch of 24,000 AstraZeneca vaccines through the COVAX sharing scheme.
Kurti said he wanted to set an example that would encourage people to take part in the campaign as health workers lined up after him in a sports hall in the capital Pristina to get the jab.
With the first batch, Kosovo aims to vaccinate around 11,000 doctors and nurses and people aged 80 years and older.
"With my example here I want to say and encourage all the citizens to get vaccinated and get rid of the dilemmas on the benefits of the vaccine," Kurti told reporters. "Vaccines are necessary because we are facing a difficult pandemic.”
WATCH: Kosovo PM Receives COVID-19 Vaccine
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Kosovo’s Prime Minister Becomes Nation's First Person To Receive COVID-19 Vaccine
Kosovo, one of Europe’s poorest countries, registered 88,754 cases of coronavirus infection and 1,844 deaths since the start of the pandemic. In the past 24 hours it reported four deaths and 774 new infections.
The Balkan nation of 1.8 million people will receive a total of 100,800 doses of the vaccine through the COVAX scheme.
Washington and Brussels are the main contributors to the COVAX program.
A few hundred Kosovar health workers were vaccinated last week in Albania.
Kosovo is in negotiations with Pfizer to acquire doses of its drug against COVID-19, but no agreement has been reached.
The European Union announced on March 27 that the Western Balkans will receive 650,000 dosages of the Pfizer vaccine from the European Union.