Covid-19 vaccine will be free of charge for all citizens of Bosnia’s Federation (FBiH) entity and will be received voluntarily, the FBiH authorities confirmed on Friday presenting the vaccination plan for this part of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The FBiH cantons, ten of them, will be tasked to form operational teams to conduct the immunisation as well as the teams for vaccination at healthcare institutions.

“The list of priorities is being created, based on which the immunisation will be carried out,” chief of the FBiH Public Healthcare Institute Davor Pehar told a press conference, stressing that the first in line will be the healthcare workers, followed by the residents and workers at nursing homes, persons with chronic diseases and those employed in specific public institutions.

The cantonal operational teams will be in charge of further education on the vaccination process at healthcare institutions.

Each hospital will have its own team, while the general practitioner teams at healthcare institutes will be in charge of this process, said Mia Blazevic of the FBiH Public Healthcare Institute.

One of the recommendations from this institution says that patients should come in for vaccination every ten minutes, to avoid contact with other patients, which means the vaccination of six patients in an hour.

At nursing homes, the vaccination will be carried out at rooms.

Speaking of other details, the healthcare officials said the transportation system has been determined before.

Goran Cerkez, the Assistant FBiH Health Minister, stressed 12 million marks plus additional two million (approx seven million euros in total) have been planned for this purpose during this year.

“The FBiH is prepared to apply the vaccines and acquire new quantities. That would mean 800,000 vaccines for 400,000 citizens through COVAX mechanism. Additional 800,000 vaccines are expected through the European Union’s common system and we also have funds for other vaccines such as AstraZeneca, which is expected to be registered by end of January,” he concluded.