Prime Minister Edi Rama during the Tv Program “Opinion” on Thursday, stated that the government’s target is to vaccinate half a million people by May.
Rama said that “so far Albania has administered 280,000 vaccine doses and has contracted another 2.1 million doses”.
Within three to four weeks, another 500,000 doses of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine would arrive in the country, he added.
Later, the Prime Minister said that “106,000 vaccines will be taken from the EU, that has nothing to do with COVAX program, it is a new program. Then later on we will have other vaccines by Pfizer and AstraZeneca”
“We have the capacity to vaccinate intensively,” he said, adding that “the Albanian government is ready to vaccinate 11,000 Kosovo doctors within 11 days”.
The increase of cases is related to the new variants of COVID-19”, Rama explained.
Regarding the Prime Minister’s earlier skepticism about Russian and Chinese vaccines, he said that “the change in his position on Russian and Chinese vaccines is softer than that of Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Unlike Albania, Germany is actually awaiting the decision of the European Medicines Agency regarding the safety of Sputnik V.
Asked about the public’s skepticism of the Chinese vaccine, the Prime Minister said that “Albanians have a lot of respect for the Turkish health system” and “this will give them the guarantee for the Chinese vaccine”.
Albania received 192,000 of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine doses from a Turkish distributor on Thursday.
But he did not provide an explanation for the effectiveness of the vaccine or a response to citizens who are unsure about receiving the vaccine.
He was asked by reporters if a public figure would do the Chinese vaccine, as was done with Pfizer when Rama himself was inoculated. He did not give an answer to that.
Sinovac is one of the leading manufacturers of COVID-19 vaccines in China.
The company has expanded its annual production capacity to 2 billion doses and has offered its vaccines to over 16 countries and regions.
The head of Sinovac has stated that the vaccine has an efficiency rate of 80-90% within two months after receiving both doses.
Tested on the new variants of COVID-19 such as that of Brazil, the vaccine has not been very effective.
So far in Albania, doctors, nurses, the elderly, and teachers have been vaccinated although this process is not complete. The vaccines Albania has received so far are Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sputnik V, and Sinovac.
