Vaccination against COVID-19 started in Croatia on Sunday, and the first person to be given the Pfizer jab was 81-year-old Branka Anicic, a resident of a retirement home in Zagreb's neighbourhood of Tresnjevka.

After she got the vaccine, Anicic said that she was happy to be the first person to get vaccinated and that the vaccine had arrived soon so that life could start getting back to normal.

“We should all get vaccinated for the sake of our friends, family and ourselves,” Anicic said, calling on everyone to get vaccinated.

Doctor Miro Hanzevacki, who performed the vaccination, said that 20 residents of the retirement home would receive jabs today and that all of the home’s 110 residents would get the vaccine in the next few days.

The vaccination was attended by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy Minister Josip Aladrovic, Croatian Public Health Institute (HZJZ) head Krunoslav Capak, and Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandic.

The first 9,750 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Croatia on Saturday and they will be distributed across the country today.

The first to receive the vaccine are residents of care homes, medical workers working with COVID-19 patients and emergency medical service employees.

The vaccine will be free and citizens will get vaccinated on a voluntary basis. According to a government plan, vaccination will be conducted simultaneously across the country.

The first batch of the vaccine is a symbolic one, delivered to all EU member states to mark the start of European vaccinations on December 27, 28 and 29. After that, new batches will be arriving in Croatia on a weekly basis, in line with the vaccination schedule.

So far Croatia has secured 5,905,000 doses of the vaccine and the aim is to immunise a minimum 70% of the population.

After the vaccination at the Tresnjevka retirement home, PM Plenkovic, Health Minister Vili Beros and the head of Zagreb’s Dr Fran Mihaljevic hospital for infectious diseases, Alemka Markotic, will visit that institution, whose staff will get vaccinated as well. After that, medical workers working with COVID-19 patients at the city’s Dubrava hospital will get immunised as well.