On January 11th, 2021, Albania became the second country in the region that started the COVID-19 vaccination. The process started 308 days from the very first COVID-cases and 15 days after the EU countries. On that day, 48 doctors who served at COVID hospitals were vaccinated at the Air Albania stadium.
Two months later, the Albanian government has administered 20,911 vaccines in total, or 360 doses a day. Health Ministry data updated on March 9th show that 19,856 persons have taken one single dose of the Pfizer vaccine, 1055 have received them both.
The initial plan for vaccination had divided receivers by their age, starting with those over 80. However, on February 21st the Albanian authorities decided to vaccinate people considered as “personalities” over 80. This decision has violated the measures provided by the strategic document of the Health Ministry and the Public Health Institution.
The data updated on March 9th show that 3308 persons over 80 have received the Pfizer vaccines. The National Institution of Statistics shows that there are 81,964 Albanian people over 80. This means that only 4% have received the vaccine so far.
As regard health professionals, 17,603 have been vaccinated. The total number of health professionals in Albania is 25,467. Only 4.1% of the staff has received both doses. 16,548 have received only one dose, 1055 both of them.