Serbian president receives 3rd dose of coronavirus vaccine

BELGRADE, Serbia

Serbia's president on Sunday received the third dose of a coronavirus vaccine and urged all citizens to get vaccinated.

After getting vaccinated, Aleksandar Vucic once again called on all citizens to get their jabs and protect themselves, thanking all medical workers working over the past year to inoculate the population.

"Vaccination has been going on for a year now, and they have carried the biggest burden on their shoulders. Thank you all for your responsible behavior, for calling people to get vaccinated. I am also asking them to get vaccinated. I did not even feel the sting of the needle," Vucic told reporters at the Belgrade Fair.

He announced that health workers would receive the greatest salary increase and an additional award in 2022.

The jab Vucic received at a vaccination center in the capital Belgrade was produced by Chinese biotechnology firm Sinopharm.

Serbia has recently become a COVID-19 hotspot.

The country has been recording more than 6,500 cases a day despite having a variety of vaccines available for its 7 million population.

An infection rate of almost 93.5 per 100,000 people was registered as the highest in the world.

Serbia had earlier become a regional hub for vaccination due to a government policy of donating and permitting residents from neighboring countries to acquire free doses in Serbia.

The country conducted the second-fastest vaccine rollout in Europe until a couple of months ago.

With plentiful supplies of Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sputnik V, and the Chinese Sinopharm vaccines, it raced ahead of EU countries, offering jabs across the border in Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.