Prime Minister of Bosnia's Federation (FBiH) entity Fadil Novalic confirmed on Thursday that the FBiH authorities signed a contract with China's vaccine producer Sinopharm for half a million doses, while negotiations with Pfizer in cooperation with the state-level authorities are still udnerway.

He explained that the FBiH Government directly negotiated the purchase with China but that he cannot reveal more details at the moment, due to the contract’s confidentiality clause.

“The Government of the People’s Republic of China approved all half a million vaccine doses. The states are procuring the vaccines all over the world, and the FBiH Government has been, is and will be taking all activities to procure the vaccines for the citizens,” said Novalic, addressing the media.

The PM also said the authorities at the FBiH and the state level are trying to negotiate the vaccine purchase with Pfizer.

He thanked on his own and the behalf of the government to the Embassy of China in Sarajevo as well as the Bosnian Embassy in Beijing for the assistance.

Speaking about the details of negotiations with Pfizer, head of the FBiH Public Health Institute Sinisa Skocibusic said that the communication has been established and that the process of compiling the necessary documentation is underway.

“We plan to get 1.2 million of Pfizer doses. One million for the FBiH, and 200,000 doses for Republika Srpska (Bosnia’s other semi-autonomous region,” he explained.

He also said that the Sinopharm vaccines will be delivered in several shipments, as they need to be kept at low temperatures.