Croatia will receive an additional 747,000 doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine by the beginning of summer, making up for the shortage due to AstraZeneca's slower production and distribution, the government said on Thursday.

In the second quarter, BioNTech/Pfizer will deliver ten million doses to the EU which had been envisaged for delivery in the second half of the year, including 747,000 for Croatia.

“After a series of talks in recent days held at the level of prime ministers as well as negotiations at the Committee of Permanent Representatives in Brussels, we have ensured for Croatia an additional 747,000 doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine by the end of June,” Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said.

He said Croatia’s position had been that the additional doses should be distributed in the spirit of European solidarity so that the countries which were to have received more AstraZeneca doses by now could receive more BioNTech/Pfizer doses to compensate for the shortage that could not have been foreseen due to AstraZeneca’s slower production and distribution.

In this way, Croatia will protect the health of its citizens even more strongly and ensure a higher vaccination rate ahead of the summer tourist season, the government said.