The director of the Croatian Public Health Institute and a member of the national COVID-19 response team, Krunoslav Capak, said on Tuesday that the first vaccine against coronavirus was likely to be registered soon and that Croatia would be able to vaccinate its entire population.

“Over the past few days the media have been frequently reporting that the first vaccine is close to being registered and now it seems fairly likely that that will be Pfizer’s vaccine that the Health Ministry and government have ordered via EU procurement in the amount of one million doses,” said Capak.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine is expected to be registered soon too, Capak said, adding that Croatia had ordered 2.7 million doses of that vaccine.

There are two other vaccines that are close to registration, one made by the Moderna company, from which a million doses have been ordered, and another made by Johnson&Johnson, from which 900,000 doses have been ordered, he said.

“We have a sufficient quantity of vaccine for Croatia’s entire population,” said Capak adding that initially the vaccine would probably not be registered for use for persons under the age of 18.

However, considering that the vaccines will not arrive in Croatia at once and will be delivered in phases, a priority order has been prepared, Capak said.

The most vulnerable and exposed groups are first on the list – health workers, followed by residents and staff in aged care facilities, he said.