Strong criticism was levied against Kosovo’s newly elected government on Friday after crowds of elderly people congregated at the entrance of the “1 Tetori” vaccination center in Prishtina.
Civic society organizations said in a joint public letter that the lack of a plan by the Ministry of Health might result in new infections, suggesting that the way authorities called on citizens to be vaccinated was not clear.
“This call from the Ministry of Health, without a clear plan and timeline of vaccination of persons of this age group (over 65-year-old) caused long lines and gatherings which directly endanger public health, especially of an age group more at risk from COVID-19,” reads the reaction.
Former Minister of Health and MP of the opposition Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) Armend Zemaj said that the situation created on Friday is a consequence of the negligence of the government.
“The government led by Albin Kuti and the Minister [of Health] Arben Vitia today endangered citizens by becoming the spreaders of infection,” Zemaj said, the public broadcaster RTK reported.
The Acting leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, Enver Hoxhaj said that Kurti and his government should bear moral and criminal responsibility, as according to him they committed “a crime against citizens”.
“Today we witnessed that the state was missing, the Prime Minister was missing and the Minister of Health was missing. This for us, as PDK, is unacceptable and intolerable,” Hoxhaj said during a press conference.
The ministry said that the gathering of a large number of people in the vaccination center in Prishtina was because citizens of other municipalities also went there.
“We call on the citizens of other municipalities of the Republic of Kosovo to go to vaccination centers in their municipalities, in order to receive the necessary information and be vaccinated,” said the Ministry of Health.
Kosovo was the last Balkan country to start the vaccination process.
Over 29,000 vaccines have been administrated so far with the vaccination of the over-65s starting yesterday.
