Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Wednesday that there was no longer any problem with coronavirus vaccine amounts and that Croatia would be receiving increased weekly supplies until the end of June.

Up to 20,000 people can be inoculated a day so by the summer season we could have 1.6 million people inoculated against COVID-19, he told a news conference after a meeting of his inner cabinet with representatives of counties and cities on the vaccine rollout plan and the economic recovery.

“We informed county heads about the supply of vaccine until 30 June this year. The key message is that there is no longer any problem with vaccines. We have secured sufficient vaccines and from the end of December to the end of June a total of at least 3.1 million doses will have been delivered. So far almost 600,000 people have been vaccinated,” said Plenkovic.

More than 200,000 Pfizer vaccine doses to be delivered on a weekly basis

It is the duty of the Health Ministry, the Croatian Public Health Institute and county institutes to organise more intensive inoculation throughout Croatia, Plenkovic said and added that he wants to reach inoculation of 50% to 55% of the adult population.

According to estimates by epidemiologists, the maximum number of people who want to be vaccinated is about 2.3 million people and as of next week more quantities of vaccines will be delivered, he said. That way, in the last five weeks of this quarter we will receive more than 200,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine each week and other vaccines will be arriving too.

“The message for county authorities is to do their utmost and to mobilise all their resources so we can inoculate between 17,000 and 20,000 people a day,” he said.

According to this scenario we would come to a number of about 1.6 million people we wish to inoculate by the summer season. That would ensure important health protection for citizens, the conditions for economic recovery, financial stability and the tourism season, added Plenkovic.

Referring to people who do not wish to be vaccinated, he sent a message to citizens to look around and see what is happening around them.

“If we have more than 6,600 people who have died, if this is the greatest pandemic in one hundred years, if this sort of health, economic, financial, social crisis has never occurred  before, then the choice between getting vaccinated and not should be pretty simple,” he said and appealed on citizens to get vaccinated because experts have reassured that the benefits of vaccination significantly surpass the risks of certain side effects that have occurred with some vaccines.

“It is necessary to grant trust to the experts. That is why experts exist. That is why the government appeals to everyone to get vaccinated,” said Plenkovic and added that there will be sufficient vaccines, particularly the Pfizer vaccine, which is the most in demand.