North Macedonia orders 26,000 more Sanofi flu vaccines — 86,000 doses expected
Additional 26,000 Sanofi doses will arrive by November 15; total supply will reach 86,000 while 66,821 people have registered since October 14.
The Government has secured an additional 26,000 influenza vaccines from manufacturer "Sanofi" that are scheduled to arrive by November 15, Health Minister Sasho Klekovski announced. With the newly ordered batch the supply now stands at 56,000 doses, and an extra 30,000 doses are expected by the end of November — bringing the total to 86,000 vaccines, roughly 20,000 more than the number of citizens currently registered for immunisation.
Registration and demand so far
The seasonal vaccination campaign started on October 14. Since then 66,821 citizens have registered for vaccination, an average of 4,455 registrations per day, Klekovski said. The largest share of registrants are people aged over 65, followed by chronically ill patients.
Registration is highest in Skopje (19,767), Bitola (4,845), Prilep (3,844), Strumica (3,585) and Tetovo (3,581).
The government has activated the online registration portal vakcinacija.mk to schedule appointments. So far 6,710 appointments have been made and 3,266 citizens have been vaccinated; during the last three working days roughly one thousand people were vaccinated per day. The execution rate for appointments that have already passed is 86.7%, while 503 citizens (13.3%) did not show up for their scheduled slot.
Minister Klekovski presented the new procurement as a step to ensure wider availability of seasonal influenza shots ahead of peak months, noting the supply increases will provide a buffer above current demand as registrations continue.
Photo: kallerna / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
