Bosnia and Herzegovina's authorities still have no information when the country could get the first shipment of the COVID vaccine booked through the COVAX mechanism so they will try to buy batches of it through direct deals with producers, Prime Minister Zoran Tegeltija said on Thursday.

“Unfortunately, the procurement of vaccines has turned from a health issue into a political one,” Tegeltija told the press after he held a meeting with the prime ministers of the country's two entities: the Croat-Bosniak Federation and the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity.

The country's authorities have already booked more than 1.2 million doses of the COVID vaccine through COVAX Facility, the global pooled procurement mechanism for COVID-19.

The first pre-ordered doses were expected on 18 January, however, the country has not yet received any batch.

The country has already paid for the vaccine produced by Pfizer and Moderna, however, the delivery is late.

All this made PM Tegeltija say that the government would try to negotiate direct deliveries by other producers, including those in Russia and China.

The Republika Srpska entity's Prime Minister Radovan Viskovic said that this part of Bosnia and Herzegovina had already secured the delivery of vaccines from Russia and he offered this solution to the Federation entity authorities.

According to Viskovic, a shipment with 200,000 doses of the Russian vaccine can be expected very soon.

“We plan to vaccinate up to 50% of Bosnia and Herzegovina's inhabitants as soon as possible. Vaccination will be free of charge and voluntary,” Višković said.

Federation Prime Minister Fadil Novalic said that they were ready to procure any vaccine available on the market that could be obtained as soon as possible.