Slovenia to get pro rata share of 10m doses of Pfizer vaccine

Brussels – Slovenia will get its pro rata share from a package of 10 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine whose delivery has been pushed forward from the first to the second quarter of the year. Under the plan agreed last evening by EU member states, this means approximately 47,000 doses of the vaccine.

Slovenia, Austria and the Czech Republic will get their share relative to the number of citizens, having decided not to participate in the solidarity model.

The remaining countries agreed with the proposal of the Portuguese presidency that certain countries which are furthest behind in the vaccination effort get higher shares.

Under the agreement reached on Thursday, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia will thus get a combined 2.85 million doses of the vaccine shipment, and the remaining countries will get 6.66 million doses, expectedly in the second quarter of the year.

Prime Minister Janez Janša said in a tweet that “the solution is acceptable for Austria and Slovenia, but not for the Czech Republic, which is currently severely affected.”

Janša added that “at least five million doses out of the ten million that had been agreed in principle on Thursday should have been distributed under a solidarity-based model for all to be covered, including the Czech Republic.”

The government said in a press release Slovenia, along with five other countries, had tried to bridge the widening differences in the vaccination rate between member states.

In particular, Slovenia wanted five million vaccines to be distributed on a solidarity basis, not three million as the Portuguese presidency proposed.

Reiterating Janša’s statement, the government voiced regret at the decision being detrimental to Czechia, noting that countries which may be able to vaccinate over 60% of their populations by June had refrained from solidarity with Czechia.

In total, Slovenia received roughly 14,000 more doses than under the Portugal presidency’s proposal, but it appears it will donate the bulk of that to Czechia, while Austria decided to donate 30,000 doses from its allotment.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš wrote on Twitter today that “another act of solidarity towards the Czech Republic comes from Slovenia, the small country that offered 10,000 doses to share. Thank you so much friends and @JJansaSDS for your kind help.”

Janša replied on Twitter that a year ago, “when Slovenia was in a desperate situation without personal protective equipment,
Czech Republic helped us. We said we will never forget.”

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