The new coronavirus strain from the United Kingdom has made it to Serbia, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Sunday.

„I am very afraid, but it’s important that we found out in time. We hope that we can stop it,“ he said, adding that the new strain was brought to the country by a girl from London who is experiencing milder symptoms, Nova.rs reported.

The President said that he expects 50,000 people to be vaccinated throughout the day, but that he is worried and does not want to hide because it is very difficult to procure new vaccines.

„It is true that I am worried and I don’t hide it, because today it is more difficult to get vaccines than nuclear weapons. Unbelievable things are happening in the world, which we partially predicted,” he told TV Prva.

There are no vaccines available in Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia or Kosovo, he said.

Vucic argued that Serbia is „convincingly“ the first in the region in terms of the number of vaccinated per 100,000 inhabitants and said that he expects Serbia to overtake Denmark tomorrow and be „third in Europe in the number of citizens who received the vaccine“.

“We are in ninth place in the world, and in the next two or three days, we can be sixth or seventh. That shows that we had a wise policy in place, and not only in the health care system,” he said.

He reiterated that the Chinese vaccine was „convincingly the most expensive“ and that Serbia procured it at a cheaper price thanks to his correspondence with Chinese President Xi Jinping in October, but did not reveal how much Serbia paid for the vaccines.