The Prime Minister of Bosnia's Federation (FBiH) entity, Fadil Novalic, told N1 Wednesday that they expect the first shipment containing 100,000 Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine to arrive at BiH on Friday, or Monday, given that all the necessary procedures were over. It is only up to the FBiH Health Institute director Davor Pehar to sign the procurement contract with the Medimpex company, which is expected very soon, he added.

“Last night (Tuesday evening) the FBiH Government adopted a conclusion in which section 2 tasks the FBiH Health Institute to sign the contract with the Medimpex company without delay. The total amount of doses is 500,000 and the company guarantees the implementation of the procurement. The first shipment will contain 100,000 doses and the delivery deadline is three days after the signing of the credentials which have been approved,” Novalic said.

Answering the question of whether this could have been done earlier, the Prime Minister said they have initiated the procurement procedure as soon as the state-level government said they are unable to secure the vaccines and that there are issues with the COVAX facility, allowing the entities to procure their own vaccines.

“We also talked to the director of the FBiH Health Institute, who assured us that they have a well-prepared immunization plan in agreement with 10 cantonal public health institutes. When we learned from the media that there is unnecessary retention of vaccines at Sarajevo Airport, we decided to hold talks with Airport representatives to see what it is about to solve these possible problems before the arrival of the vaccines themselves,” Novalic concluded.

The FBiH Government approved on Tuesday the procurement of Sputnik V vaccines, which will be carried out by the Sarajevo-based Medimpex company.

According to the decision that the Government adopted in an urgent session Tuesday night, the FBiH Healthcare Institute will sign the contract with Medimpex, the only company that managed to file necessary documentation by Tuesday afternoon.