From June 3rd, all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) can receive the coronavirus vaccine in any city in Serbia, without making an appointment. It is not known how many people decided to be vaccinated in the neighborhood, because BiH does not keep records of that, and there is no aggregate data in Serbia either. Journalists visited one of the Health Centers in Serbia and checked the interest of our citizens.
In front of the Health Center “Milenko Marin” in Loznica, there have been lines of citizens of BiH for days. After receiving the first dose of the vaccine in Serbia in early June, they have now come for revaccination.
“While vaccination centers throughout Serbia keep records of the number of BiH citizens who got the vaccine in neighboring Serbia, BiH health care under the jurisdiction of the entities, cantons, and the Brcko District does not have precise data on the number of vaccinated. What is mentioned as one of the options is that in the upcoming period, cooperation will be established with the Batut Institute of Public Health in order to get precise data from Serbia on how many of our citizens have been vaccinated here. “
Nevertheless, the records of vaccinated foreign citizens in Serbia are kept at the level of health centers and there is no aggregate data, so they are not obliged to submit them.
“We are monitoring the situation at our checkpoint, and we are reporting this to the Institute of Public Health and Batut Institute, as well as the Ministry of Health. Over 6.000 citizens from BiH have been vaccinated, while from June 24th it has already started with the second dose, so in two days about 600 citizens have been vaccinated, today there is revaccination, 800 citizens are waiting for the second dose of the vaccine, ” told yesterday the coordinator for vaccination of City of Loznica, Ljiljana Rankovic.
As confirmed by the Institute of Public Health of Republika Srpska (RS), cooperation with “Batut” is still at the level of an idea. Judging by the data of the BiH Border Police on the number of border crossings and traffic jams at border crossings, the number of BiH citizens who are being vaccinated in Serbia is increasing each day.
“People from Bijeljina, Tuzla, Brcko, Vlasenica, Sarajevo, Doboj, from practically all parts of BiH, are of great interest,” added Rankovic.
“I hereby ask them to come to us to contact their family doctor so that we can at least have some records,” stated the director of the Bijeljina Health Center, Dr. Danijela Djukin.
According to the BiH Ministry of Civil Affairs, somewhat over 530.000 vaccines have arrived in BiH, which is insufficient for the priority categories, and not to mention the mass immunization of 3.5 million citizens.
E.DZ.
