BELGRADE, Aug 15 (Reuters) - The Serbian health authorities
authorised a third dose of COVID-19 vaccines for people with
compromised immune systems, health workers and anyone vaccinated
at least six months ago, country's labour minister said on
Sunday.
The Balkan country is facing a surge in coronavirus
infections, with an average of over 900 cases a day in the past
week due to the highly contagious Delta variant. It so far
vaccinated over 50% of its population of around 7 million.
In a live broadcast by the state RTS TV, Darija Kisic
Tepavcevic, a doctor and Serbia's labour minister, said health
authorities would start administering the third dose of vaccines
to the immunocompromised from Tuesday.
"Citizens who received their shots at least six months ago
may also request to receive the third dose," said Kisic
Tepavcevic.
She did not specify which vaccine would be used for the
third dose.
Serbia is currently using COVID-19 vaccines from four
manufacturers; Pfizer/BioNtech , China's
Sinopharm, AstraZeneca/Oxford and Russia's Sputnik V.
So far COVID-19 has killed 7,167 people in Serbia, while
732,044 have fallen ill.
(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Alison Williams)