Bosnia's Council of Ministers Chairman Zoran Tegeltija said Monday that BiH had paid the entire amount of money for the purchase of vaccines through the Covax facility and that the first vaccines would arrive by the end of January. He noted that inoculation would be free for priority groups of society.

Answering the question delegates’ questions from BiH's House of Representatives, Tegeltija said that the country, meaning the entities and the Brcko District paid $12,997,000 for 1,232,000 coronavirus vaccines and that the BiH Council of Ministers (as the state government is officially called) through the BiH Ministry of Civil Affairs provided two million Bosnian marks for the transport, storage and vaccine delivery.

“The inoculation of 20 percent of the population is planned for the first part. According to the information from January 6, 2021, the first quantities will arrive by the end of January. These are the vaccines that are the most difficult to transport and store, but which are the first to be registered in the world and whose use has been approved. The vaccination program was defined by the competent ministries of Bosnia's entities and the Brcko District. In parallel with this process, BiH, together with the EU, started the procurement through the EU vaccine procurement mechanism, we agreed on about 892,000 doses of vaccines,” said Tegeltija.

He added that the meeting between the ministries in charge of the transport, storage and delivery is ongoing and that the transport method has already been agreed on.

“Ministries have identified priority groups – health workers and support staff, the population over the age of 65 with chronic diseases and people in institutions for the elderly. I am sure that BiH, together with its partners from the EU and the Covax system, will receive the vaccines on time. BiH has the necessary financial resources to procure the vaccines for citizens. The vaccines will be free for all priority groups,” Tegeletija noted.