Croatian Public Health Institute (HZJZ) director Krunoslav Capak and vaccine distribution coordinators early on Saturday morning took over the first 9,750 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the HZJZ has reported.

The vaccine must be stored at -70 degrees Celsius and its distribution across the country will start on Sunday.

Capak said that the arrival of the vaccine was the most important event since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

The vaccination of the most vulnerable groups in the country will start on Sunday, he said.

Those groups are residents of care homes, medical workers working with COVID-19 patients and emergency medical service employees.

The first batch of the vaccine is a symbolic one, delivered to all EU member states to mark the start of European vaccinations on December 27, 28 and 29. After that, new batches will be arriving in Croatia on a weekly basis, in line with the vaccination schedule.

The HZJZ has called on citizens to respond to the vaccination campaign in line with its slogan – “Think of others – get vaccinated”.

So far Croatia has secured 5,905,000 doses of the vaccine and the aim is to immunise a minimum 70% of the population.

Croatia has ordered a million doses of the Pfizer & BioNTech vaccine, 2.7 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, 900,000 doses from Johnson&Johnson, a million from Moderna and 300,000 from CureVac.

The vaccine will be free and citizens will get vaccinated on a voluntary basis. According to a government plan, vaccination will be conducted simultaneously across the country.

By the end of March, 270,000 doses of the vaccine are expected to arrive in Croatia.