A vaccine divide in the Balkans

In the past week, the Balkans and other parts of Central and Eastern Europe have recorded some of the world’s highest per capita death rates from Covid-19. The Czech Republic leads the global toll with 2.03 deaths per 100,000, followed by Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Bosnia, and North Macedonia is not far behind, according to a Times database.

Many in the Balkans, whose countries are not members of the European Union but look to it for help, are feeling abandoned by the bloc, which has struggled with one of the world’s slowest vaccine rollouts. By contrast, Serbia, which has signed deals for 11 million doses of Russian, Chinese and Western vaccines, has become the continent’s second-best vaccinator, our correspondent reported from Belgrade.

Vaccines symbolize power in the pandemic era, bringing with them the chance to supercharge the economic recovery. Diplomatically, Serbia’s success makes President Aleksandar Vucic look good as the E.U. struggles; the country has even donated shots to other parts of the region.

For Serbia, the shots build on the country’s alliance with China, which has invested billions there, said Majda Ruge at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Last year, the government touted China’s help in its pandemic response, downplaying E.U. support, she said. In one survey of Serbians from the Belgrade Center for Security Policy, 75 percent of respondents thought China provided the most help in the pandemic, and only 3 percent said the same of the E.U.

Others in the region are looking east, too. Montenegro and Bosnia are buying Russian vaccines. North Macedonia announced it was buying Sinopharm’s shots, and Albania said it was considering both. “Covid-19 has contributed to growing the distance between the E.U. and Western Balkans,” Naim Rashiti, executive director of the Kosovo-based Balkans Policy Research Group, told me.

Here are the latest updates and maps of the pandemic.

In other developments:

The E.U. on Wednesday proposed a certificate that would allow people to travel more freely if they could show proof of vaccination, a negative test or a documented recovery from the coronavirus. It is intended to salvage the summer for member states that depend on tourism.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump called the Covid vaccines “great” and “safe” in a Fox News interview. “I would recommend it to a lot of people that don’t want to get it, and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly,” he said. Polls have shown that a high percentage of his supporters said they wouldn’t get a vaccine.
The New York Times