WHO WITHOUT STATISTICS The state does not know how many citizens have been vaccinated, entities are not submitting data

SARAJEVO, (Patria) – Although BiH has been fighting the coronavirus pandemic for more than a year, a clearly established system and coordination between the entities, Brčko District and the Council of Ministers of BiH has not been established to this day. This was also shown by the data on vaccination in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is under the jurisdiction of public health institutes and agencies. However, even though the process began first in the RS in February when the authorities in that BiH entity purchased Russian Sputnik V vaccines, while some healthcare workers went to Serbia for vaccination, and then in March in the FBiH with donated vaccines from Serbia, AstraZeneca, the Ministry of Civil Affairs of BiH does not have data on vaccinations carried out to this day.

To the questions we sent to the Ministry of Civil Affairs of BiH regarding vaccinations carried out, as well as whether they submit data to the World Health Organization (WHO) given that there is no vaccination data for BiH, while such data is listed for other countries in the region, we received the following answer:

“Statistical data is submitted to the World Health Organization by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, based on information received from the competent health authorities of the entities and Brčko District. The Ministry of Civil Affairs has not yet received such information from the competent health authorities,” the MCP BiH stated in their answer to Patria.

Knowing that the MCP is responsible for this data, the fact that they do not have official data, and that the entity authorities, i.e., competent institutions, do not submit information, is devastating.

It is no secret that the MCP does not have data on the vaccination of BiH citizens in neighboring Serbia, nor were they informed in any way about this possibility, and it is estimated that more than 10,000 BiH citizens were vaccinated in recent days.

The Minister of Health of KS Haris Vranić confirmed at today's session of the KS Assembly that neither this Ministry, nor probably the KS Public Health Institute, have data on the number of vaccinated citizens in Serbia. There is not even a clear instruction on whether citizens should report to anyone that they have been vaccinated.

How can we explain to anyone, so that they take us seriously in any negotiations, that we are a state when one entity properly procures and buys vaccines, while the other depends on donations and has not yet managed to buy vaccines, and the state relies solely on the Covax mechanism, whose initial contingents are insufficient for any mass immunization.

And while we listen to plans for immunization and digitalization of the system, we do not know how many of the population has been vaccinated, who monitors their health status, how many citizens were vaccinated with which vaccine, all of which is data for any research that public health institutes should have.

The ratio of distribution of received vaccines from the Covax program (23,400 Pfizer/BioNTech and 26,400 AstraZeneca) to the entities and Brčko District is still unknown, nor is it known when the distribution will begin.

30,000 Chinese vaccines also arrived from Turkey as a donation, but approval from the BiH Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices for their use is still pending.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 6,400 deaths have been confirmed in BiH, and this should be an alarm for authorities at all levels to seriously focus on procuring vaccines as quickly as possible in order to carry out immunization in the shortest possible time to achieve full effect.