Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Tuesday that unlike Hungary and some other countries, Croatia was not thinking about manufacturing a COVID-19 vaccine from other companies as its population was just four million and 70% were expected to be given the purchased vaccines by summer.

As for the possibility of administering the Russian vaccine, he told the press in the village of Kokorici in the Dalmatian hinterland that he wanted to be completely sure about the procedure.

“Croatia, like other member states, relies on the EMA (European Medicines Agency). It must be reliable. We must trust the vaccine that is arriving. The key is, when the EMA approves medicines, the responsibility is on the pharmaceutical company. If we have no filter, then we are responsible.”

Plenkovic said he had tasked the foreign and health ministers with this and that if the Russian vaccine’s reliability was proved, “we will go for those additional quantities.”