Kosovo PM gets first COVID-19 vaccine shot to encourage take-up

Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti receives the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine under the COVAX scheme against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Pristina, Kosovo March 29, 2021. REUTERS/Laura Hasani

Prime Minister Albin Kurti was the first person to get a COVID-19 vaccine shot at the start of Kosovo's inoculation campaign on Monday, saying he wanted to set an example that would encourage people to take part in the campaign.

Doctors and nurses lined up after Kurti in a sports hall in the capital Pristina to get the AstraZeneca vaccine.

On Sunday evening, 24,000 AstraZeneca vaccines, part of the COVAX vaccine sharing scheme, arrived in Kosovo, the last country in Europe start inoculation. With the first batch Kosovo aims to vaccinate around 11,000 doctors and nurses and people aged 80 years and older.

AstraZeneca vaccine is seen during a vaccine process in Pristina, Kosovo March 29, 2021. REUTERS/Laura Hasani

"With my example here I want to say and encourage all the citizens to get vaccinated and get rid of the dilemmas on the benefits of the vaccine," Kurti told reporters. "Vaccines are necessary because we are facing a difficult pandemic.”

Until Monday the country of 1.8 million people registered 88,754 cases of coronavirus infection and 1,844 deaths. In the past 24 hours it reported 4 deaths and 774 new infections.

(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Ivana Sekularac, William Maclean)