Bosnians 'unhappy' at lack of Covax vaccines, says FM

BERLIN: Bosnia's foreign minister voiced anger on Tuesday that her country had yet to receive any of the promised vaccines from the EU-backed Covax scheme, saying Bosnians were "justifiably unhappy".

"We expect Covax to fulfil its contractual obligations," Bosnian Foreign Minister Bisera Turkovic told a press conference during a visit to Berlin.

She said Bosnia had met its obligations and paid for more than 1.2 million doses through the international Covax scheme, a global vaccine-sharing effort, but "not a single dose" had arrived to date.

"Our citizens are justifiably unhappy," Turkovic told reporters, speaking alongside German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.

"Every day counts. We're talking about people's lives," she said, in remarks translated to German.

The Balkan nation of 3.5 million people has recorded more than 5,000 deaths from Covid-19, giving it one of the world's highest per capita mortality rates from the virus.

Bosnian authorities have looked elsewhere for help, procuring some 22,000 doses of the Russian-made Sputnik V which is being doled out in the country's Serb-dominated half, Republika Srpska.

Neighbouring Serbia last week donated 10,000 AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines, which will be distributed in the country's other post-war entity, the Croat-Muslim federation.

German Foreign Minister Maas said he regretted the delayed start to the Covax rollout but that the pace would pick up soon.

Covax is set to deliver than a million vaccine doses to western Balkan countries "in the coming weeks and until the end of May", including 130,000 for Bosnia-Herzegovina, he said.

"I can understand that this isn't fast enough for many, and of course I see that there are others offering vaccines and who expect favourable political conduct in return," Maas added.