BELGRADE, Serbia – Serbia’s Prime Minister Ana Brnabic was the first to get vaccinated against the coronavirus in a show to the generally skeptical population in the Balkan country that the vaccine is safe.
She and another Serbian government minister received the first shots of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in a live TV broadcast on Thursday in what marked the start of the vaccination campaign in the country of 7 million people.
Those older than 70 in nursing homes are to follow.
Serbia on Tuesday received the first batch of 4,800 vaccines against the new coronavirus developed by BioNTech and Pfizer. Serbia is also testing the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.
Polls show that a large segment of Serbia’s population is prone to different conspiration theories and is reluctant to get vaccinated. Serbian officials have said that an unspecified number of different vaccines will arrive in the weeks and months to come and that mass vaccination should start early next year.