BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) – Thousands of vaccine seekers from Serbia’s neighboring countries flocked to Belgrade on Saturday after Serbian authorities offered free coronavirus shots to foreigners if they showed up over the weekend.
Long lines of Bosnians, Montenegrins and northern Macedonians – often entire families – formed in front of the main vaccination center in the Serbian capital while police watched.
“We do not have vaccines. I came here to get vaccinated, ”said Zivko Trajkovski, who is from Northern Macedonia. “We are very grateful because we can get vaccinated faster than in Macedonia.”
Zoran Dedic, from Bosnia, noted that his country and Serbia were part of a joint federation before Yugoslavia disintegrated in a war during the 1990s. “It doesn’t make a difference, Bosnia or Serbia. It doesn’t matter, “he said.
Most of Serbia’s Balkan neighbors have been struggling with scarcity and mass vaccination efforts have just begun, while Serbia boasts a wide supply and one of the highest per capita vaccination rates in Europe. .
The Serbian government has given vaccine doses to northern Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia.
Critics of Serbian populist President Aleksandar Vucic say he is trying to spread his influence in the Balkans and polish the ultranationalist image he acquired during the bloody separation of Yugoslavia.
Others say the vaccine against AstraZeneca that Serbia is giving to foreigners is approaching the expiration date and should be used as soon as possible, a claim that has not been verified.
The Klix news portal in Bosnia on Saturday morning described huge lines of cars on the border crossings with Serbia.
Klix reported that Bosnian businessmen were due to receive them on Saturday after the Serbian Chamber of Commerce offered 10,000 shots to his colleagues in the region.
Serbia has one of the highest inoculation rates in Europe, mainly due to large government purchases of China and the Russian vaccine Sputnik V. the Sinopharm vaccine. The country also uses vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca.
Although more than 2 million people in the country, of 7 million, have so far received at least one shot, Serbia has seen a marked decrease in the number of registered residents. Officials and doctors relate the drop in interest to an increasingly vocal anti-vaccine movement.