About 250 Kosovo doctors and nurses started to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in the north-eastern town of Kukes today, as part of the national immunisation programme. A total of 500 healthcare workers contributing to Kosovo’s health system will receive the vaccine in Albania.
Prime Minister Edi Rama and the Minister of Health Ogerta Manastirliu travelled to Kukes to see up close the vaccine rollout and extend their welcome to Kosovo doctors and nurses. “They are frontline doctors and nurses, as well as healthcare workers at other hospitals, not only at Pristina hospital. They have been organized according to a certain order, with the frontline doctors and nurses set to receive the COVID-19 vaccine first. I am confident that with the immunisation of 500 doctors and nurses we will be able to ensure sufficient protection for those who provide health care to patients,” Health Minister Manstirliu said.
Prime Minister Rama, after praising Kosovo health workers for the work they have done so far and after extending them his welcome to Albania, emphasised “we are ready to do a lot more, but it is for now important that the vaccine rollout begins first for the doctors and nurses in Kosovo, as they are most at risk. It would have been pointless and senseless that we complete vaccination while you still wait for the first jab to be administered, although we contacted Kosovo’s Ministry of Health in Pristina to show our readiness for help since the very beginning, but the problem is that the vaccine manufacturing companies don’t allow exporting to third parties. If we were to take these vaccines outside the country’s territory, then we would have faced serious problems since such a move is banned and the contract stipulates that the vaccines cannot be sent to another country. However, this is just like being in Kosovo, as Kukes is very close to Kosovo and we will go on with your vaccination this way. We are one. It is as simple as that. There is no reason to question this. Everyone knows what the future would be, but also the present. We are together and welcome. We will do whatever it takes and we won’t stop here.”
In no way shall we leave you alone – the Premier went on saying – “because, after all, we are one and the fact that the process is taking place in Kukes is because the companies don’t agree on taking the vaccine doses outside the territory of the country. Therefore, we have no reasons to take them outside, and instead we administer the vaccines here. Kukes belong both to Albania and Kosovo. Let that friend in Belgrade post maps and play on Facebook, but we are one and will remain one through the end.”
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Prime Minister Edi Rama’s press statement following visit to the vaccination site in Kukes:
We have notified Kosovo’s Ministry of Health of our readiness to contribute for some time now. You should know that the contracts with the vaccine manufacturing companies are very strict and they ban exporting the vaccines. So, a contract under which a certain supply is provided to a country, but which cannot be taken or provided to another country. This is the reason why we received the first shipment from a friendly country we didn’t reveal this country’s name so that that friendly doesn’t get into trouble with the company. So, this case would have been completely evident, as it couldn’t remain a secret and for that reason we could have faced severe penalties. However, I have invited Kosovo healthcare workers to travel to Kukes as, after all, it is a region both countries share, because beyond the fact that we are two states and there is a border between us, it is quite easy and a natural thing for Kukes to work as a common base.
The other party was somehow belated, but it was better that this happened right after that friend in Belgrade posted a useless map yesterday during a puppet Facebook play. We are one and everyone knows what the future will be, the future we all dream and work for. Of course, we sometimes hold perhaps different approaches regarding how we move forward to the future, but, as far as the present is concerned, we are absolutely one and I am very happy to have broken that terrible blockade of the impossibility of vaccinating Kosovo health workers. I have told Blerim we are ready to go on. We expect a considerable vaccine shipment to be delivered soon and we will immediately move further not to leave Kosovo doctors, nurses and health workers alone. We also hope that Kosovo will soon receive vaccine deliveries. In the meantime, I have been informed over the number of Kosovo health workers and it is about 11.000 of them and we will vaccinate all of them if Kosovo won’t be able to complete their immunisation through the vaccines it will receive.
