Virus spike in Bosnia as it awaits COVAX vaccines

Bosnia is reporting another spike in COVID-19 cases, mainly in the capital Sarajevo, among accusations that the state government is not doing enough to obtain vaccines for its citizens.Only 2,000 Russian Sputnik-V vaccines have been administered in Bosnia, to a small number of Bosnian Serb health workers, not nearly enough for a country of three and a half million people.Bosnia's hopes of a speedy delivery of pre-ordered vaccines via the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility are slowly fading as deliveries of shipments of both the Pfizer BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines are delayed.

On Monday, sunshine and a hint of spring led residents of Sarajevo, tired of lockdowns, curfews and restrictions, out in numbers, overcrowding open terraces and bars all over the city. Many were not wearing masks.An already poor and exhausted health system in the country is struggling with the numbers of incoming patients as intensive care units in several of Sarajevo's hospitals are filling up.Meanwhile, angry with the state government's lack of progress in securing vaccines in direct negotiations with manufacturers, the local cantonal government in Sarajevo has launched a campaign to buy the jabs itself.

Announcing new measures to curb the spike in the capital, the prime minister of Sarajevo country, Edin Forto, said that from Tuesday, bars and restaurants defying COVID-19 restrictions will be shut.And customers who visit them will be hit with a mandatory 14 day quarantine.Forto announced the mobilisation of all state and private sector health staff and facilities in the fight against the spread of the coronavirus.

Balkan nations have struggled to get access to COVID-19 vaccines from multiple companies and programs, but most of the nations on Europe's southeastern periphery are still waiting for their first vaccines to arrive, with no firm timeline for the start of their national inoculation drives.What is already clear is that Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia — home to some 20 million people — will lag far behind the EU's 27 nations and Britain in efforts to reach herd immunity by quickly vaccinating a large number of their people.

Many Balkan nations are pinning their hopes on COVAX, a global vaccine procurement agency set up by the World Health Organization and global charity groups to address rising inequities of vaccine distribution.COVAX has secured deals for several promising COVID-19 vaccines but, for now, it will only cover doses to inoculate 20% of a country's population.