ZAGREB, 15 February, 2021 - Health Minister Vili Beroš said on Monday he had engaged all stakeholders and requested reports from all medical institutions about possible irregularities in COVID-19 vaccination.
Data are being collected via the vaccination register and a commission has been set up to oversee vaccination, and if there are any discrepancies, it will order an inspection, he told the press. If there are omissions, the cases will be referred to the professional chambers, he added.
Beroš said he was confident he would receive reports from most medical institutions, "as well as from the digital platform," today already. "Very accurately, as stipulated."
Asked if the director of Zagreb's infectious diseases hospital, Alemka Markotić, had abused her office by having her mother vaccinated against COVID, Beroš said the opinion of the relevant institutions was important, not his.
Speaking at the same press conference, Markotić said professionals had said everything concerning her mother's vaccination and that what she said last Friday about the vaccination of one journalist was misinterpreted.
"I didn't enable any journalist to be vaccinated. I know a lot of people. One journalist boasted to someone I know about being vaccinated, it doesn't matter for what, out of turn."
She said her intention had been to prevent condemnation because it was not known if that person, given their medical condition, had reason to be vaccinated. She added that before judging whether someone was vaccinated out of turn or should have been vaccinated, it was necessary to know if indeed anything wrong had been done.
Markotić said her mother qualified for the vaccine, "which has been confirmed by a score of top professionals."
Beroš: We must unanimously say that AstraZeneca's vaccine is effective for the elderly
The press conference heard that 120,603 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered to 67,825 persons, including 52,778 who received the second shot, and that the incidence of positive PCR tests is still mildly declining.
Epidemiologist Bernard Kaić said that in theory seven doses could be extracted from one vial.
As for an instruction from Primorje-Gorski Kotar County that those older than 65 should not be given the AstraZeneca vaccine, Minister Beroš said all public health institutes must send a unanimous message about vaccination.
"In talks with the manufacturer and after analysing the questionable elements, we, like many other states, have assessed that, since this vaccine prevents the development of more serious illness and death, it is absolutely justified to vaccinate older people too."
Beroš also said that as of next week people should be able to register for vaccination via a digital platform.
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