Germany donated 970 doses of "Pfizer" vaccine to Albania

The anti-COVID vaccine, which has been in use for two days in Albania, was sent on January 11, 2021 from Germany to Albania and was transported "by hand" from Rinas Airport to the Institute of Public Health (ISHP).

A day ago, Prime Minister Rama in the conference with journalists, before the start of the vaccination process, left the country, which offered Albania the first 970 doses of the "Pfizer" vaccine, a mystery.

"The vaccination that we start today is the first result of one of the bilateral channels with a country of the European Union, which I am not authorized to tell which country it is, and this is due to their own request. The country that gave us the vaccines has asked for confidentiality. How do I explain this to them? Of course, on a certain day, I hope that I will say and thank that country in front of all Albanians. But he asked for confidentiality. All countries require this. The other three countries with which we are close have also requested confidentiality. Why? For a simple reason. If one country does this for Albania, you don't want 10 other countries to say do it for us. He does it for Albania. Why do you do it for Albania? It's not up to me to say, but one of the reasons is that 'you have Edi Rama as prime minister,'" Prime Minister Edi Rama declared to reporters on Monday on the occasion of the official start of the vaccination process against COVID-19.

But only 24 hours have passed and the country that donated the "Pfizer" vaccine to Albania has been discovered, and this country is Germany. The vaccine passed through Rinas Customs and was taken over by the Institute of Public Health (ISHP). The "most delicate" vaccine to date was transported to Rinas, while the documentation states that it was "manually withdrawn" by the Albanian authorities.

In the documentation, it is noticeable that the country of production of the vaccine is Germany, more precisely the "PFIZER BioNTECH MANUFACTURING GMBH, GERMANY" factory. While the rest of the products, diluents and syringes, as well as accompanying substances have the address of the neighboring country of Italy.

The documentation states that a box of vaccines has been sent from Germany, which has a total of 970 first doses. The documentation shows that the recipient of the vaccine box, in this case the Institute of Public Health, paid only one euro to withdraw the order from Germany.

In the documentation of the Rinas Customs, it is noted that a box of vaccines was sent from Germany, which in total has the first 970 doses. From the documentation, the fact that the recipient of the vaccine box, in this case the Institute of Public Health, paid only one euro to withdraw the order from Germany stands out.

Meanwhile, the German Embassy in Tirana neither confirms nor denies the shipment of vaccines to Albania, the doses of which arrived on January 11 in this country via Rinas Airport. The embassy emphasizes that Germany has supported Albania in coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, committed and in different ways. It is further said that Albania is being supported with a package of 10 million euros.

also Arberi 2th of 2021 Albania has so far received nearly 2 million anti-COVID vaccines

"The embassy does not have any further information about the vaccine sent on January 11, 2021. Germany has supported Albania in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in various ways. This has happened (and is still happening) through material donations and training in the medical field, direct assistance to the needy sections of the population and through a package of more than 10 million euros, among others, for consulting small and large enterprises. medium for reorganization during the crisis, as well as additional funding to the Rural Credit Guarantee Foundation", the Embassy's response states. Usually such vaccines are transported by special trucks as they require temperatures of minus 70 degrees.

The opposition in Albania has requested information and transparency on such a sensitive issue, such as the anti-COVID vaccination. Former Deputy Minister of Health, Bardh Spahia, has called the start of the vaccination process as an ugly propaganda show by Prime Minister Edi Rama. Spahia has raised doubts about how the vaccine arrived in Albania, while adding that this process should be transparent for citizens.

"Under normal conditions, the start of vaccination should have been good news for every citizen. Under normal conditions of the functioning of a state, since what we saw yesterday was an ugly propaganda show by the prime minister and his group. In fact, yesterday, like never before, a veil of mystery came out that covers the entire process of the arrival of vaccines. There is a total lack of transparency, concrete numbers of vaccines in Albania, the way it was brought, the way of storage in optimal conditions. There is no transparency on whether or not there is a real contract with a company for a certain number of vaccines through a strategic vaccination plan. I doubt the way the vaccine arrived and the type of vaccine", said Spahia.