Serbia receives 500,000 more doses of Chinese vaccine

By Talha Ozturk

BELGRADE, Serbia (AA) - Serbia received a shipment containing half a million vaccine doses from Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm late Wednesday.

An Air Serbia plane carrying the doses landed at Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade.

The plane was welcomed by Prime Minister Ana Brnabic and Chinese Ambassador to Serbia Chen Bo.

A million doses of the vaccine arrived in Serbia earlier.

Bo said at the airport that it was a great honor for her to welcome a new shipment of vaccines.

She pointed out that China will celebrate Chinese New Year in two days and emphasized that the plane brought not only vaccines but also the New Year's greeting of the Chinese people to the Serbian people.

"We hope to beat the pandemic in the New Year," she added.

Brnabic thanked China as well as President Xi Jinping for supporting Serbia during its fight against the coronavirus.

"We receive a contingent of 500,000 vaccines. It means that we have 1,500,000 Sinopharm vaccines in Serbia which, with excellent vaccination organization, has enabled us to be the second country in Europe and seventh in the world in the number of vaccinated," she said.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced that another 50,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine, 88,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and between 125,000 and 150,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will arrive in Serbia by the end of February.