651,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines will be donated from the European Union’s joint procurement to vaccinate healthcare workers in six countries in the western Balkans.

The announcement comes weeks after China and Russia distributed millions of doses of their domestic jabs in the region. “With this initiative, we are showing that we are not leaving the region behind,” Austrian foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg said, representing the country that facilitated legal arrangements for the vaccine contracts between Vienna, the western Balkan countries and Pfizer.

According to the EC, 214,000 of the 651,000 vaccine doses are to go to Bosnia-Herzegovina, 145,000 to Albania, and 119,000 to North Macedonia. Kosovo, meanwhile, will receive 95,000, Montenegro 42,000 and Serbia 36,000.