An elderly woman registers to receive a dose of COVID-19 vaccine at a policlinic in Skopje, North Macedonia, March 31, 2021. Health authorities in North Macedonia started on Wednesday mass vaccination of the citizens with AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19, local media reported. North Macedonia received its first batch of 24,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from the COVAX mechanism on March 28, of which 20,000 doses will serve to inoculate citizens above the age of 77, the first priority group. (Photo by Tomislav Georgiev/Xinhua)
SKOPJE, March 31 (Xinhua) -- Health authorities in North Macedonia started on Wednesday mass vaccination of the citizens with AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19, local media reported.
Health Minister Venko Filipce told local media that health authorities will not administer the AstraZeneca jab on people below the age of 60, following the footsteps of countries such as Canada and Germany.
North Macedonia received its first batch of 24,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from the COVAX mechanism on March 28, of which 20,000 doses will serve to inoculate citizens above the age of 77, the first priority group.
According to Filipce, North Macedonia will receive another 76,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine through the COVAX facility in the upcoming weeks, which will serve to speed up the process and continue with the immunization of other priority groups.
So far, over 7,000 health professionals have received the vaccine against COVID-19 in North Macedonia.
On Wednesday, the Health Ministry reported a total of 1,511 new coronavirus cases and 32 COVID-19-related deaths over the past 24 hours, taking the total tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country to 130,022, with 106,979 recoveries and 3,781 fatalities.
As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in some countries with already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.
Meanwhile, 267 candidate vaccines are still being developed globally -- 83 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain, and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization. Enditem
