North Macedonia received 500,000 doses of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine on Sunday to jump-start a vaccination campaign that has been slowed in recent days by shortages of supplies.
The vaccines arrived at the country’s main airport in two planes.
Macedonia received another shipment of more than 100,000 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech on Saturday, through the COVAX program.
The small Balkan country had suffered from a vaccine shortage. The vaccination campaign started in May when 200,000 Chinese Sinopharm vaccines arrived.
Almost 25% of the 2.1 million people in the country have received at least one of the doses.
The pandemic has lessened in North Macedonia and the authorities have decided to lift almost all social restrictions. They have lifted the curfew and allow bars and restaurants to operate at 50% capacity. Suggestions governing the obligation to wear the mask, but only indoors.
North Macedonia registered only four new cases of COVID on Sunday. To date there have been more than 155,600 confirmed cases and almost 5,500 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
As a thank you to neighboring Serbia for donating vaccines and giving free vaccines to Macedonian citizens, North Macedonia eliminated tolls for Serbian tourists heading to Greece on vacation.
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