Health Minister, Vili Beros, on Tuesday called on Croatians to get booster shots against the new omicron variants of the coronavirus, adding that preventing Covid-19 is better than having to treat it, state agency Hina said on Tuesday.

“Croatia should look up to countries with higher vaccine rates, which also have lower mortality rates,” Beros told Hina.

Omicron-adapted vaccines will be made available to everyone in Croatia as of next week, and these are especially recommended to the elderly and to people suffering from chronic conditions, Beros added.

The Public Health Institute said on Monday that 187,000 Pfizer-made doses of the omicron-adapted vaccine would arrive in Croatia on Tuesday, with another 57,000 shots of Moderna’s omicron-adapted shots soon after that. These adapted vaccines are registered for use only as boosters, and are not intended for people who have not had any vaccines yet.

To date, about 2.31 million Croatians have received at least one vaccine shot, which is 59.6 percent of the country’s entire 3.88 million population.

The new boosters were procured via Europan Union’s procurement program, in which countries can team up to negotiate together the sale of drugs and vaccines with pharmaceutical companies.