The government on Thursday authorised Health Minister Vili Beros to sign an order form for the purchase of the Covid-19 vaccine in line with an EU advance vaccine purchase agreement.

Based on the agreement, the European Commission is authorised to sign, on behalf of countries participating in the purchase of the coronavirus vaccine, advance agreements with pharmaceutical companies to procure the vaccine against Covid-19.

The EC signed the agreement with the pharmaceutical company astraZeneca AB on August 27.

Under the agreement, a participating member-state has the obligation to send a filled-in order form, which is signed by an authorised official, said Beros.

The EC plans to buy 300 million doses of the vaccine from AstraZeneca, plus possibly an additional 100 million doses or more, said Beros.

The money for the vaccine will be provided by the Croatian Health Insurance Institute.