Panta Petrovic, a Serb from the southwestern town of Pirot, who has been living in a cave for the last 15 years, received an anti-coronavirus shot on Tuesday and then appealed to people to get vaccinated.

He said he opted for vaccination since it was the only way to protect ourselves from Covid-19, quickly spreading to a village, forest, everywhere where the humans were.

“I got the first shot, and I expect the call for revaccination. I haven’t thought a lot. All my friends have been immunised, and I appeal to all to do the same since we, the people from villages, are the most endangered,” Petrovic told the Tanjug news agency.

He said he moved to the cave in the Gradasnicka River gorge to have absolute freedom and never regretted the decision.

Despite Serbia’s authorities have provided four types of vaccines and started immunising the population over six months ago, the general public’s response to vaccination remained poor, especially among young people.

Politicians, artists, public figures, journalists call on people to get immunised. Still, the anti-vaxer lobby and even some medical experts have said the vaccines could have long-term consequences, including infertility.

The authorities even opted for ‘bribery,’ offering vouchers to those who accept to get shots at a shopping mall.

Doctors said the coronavirus epidemic in the country was still not too worrying despite the rise in official numbers of newly infected in the last ten days mostly among those not vaccinated.

The measures like mandatory face masks indoors and physical distance are not respected almost anywhere, including public transport.

The control is almost unexisting.