Awarded vaccination packed Belgrade shopping mall for second day in a row

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The Belgrade Usce shopping mall was crowded early on Friday for the second day in a row, hours before the vaccination started after the first 50 people were promised to get a 42.4 Euro worth shopping voucher after the shot.

The vouchers came on top of Serbia’s Government promise to award every citizen vaccinated before May 31 with 25.5 Euro.

On Friday, the immunisation was due to start at noon, but people were coming even before 8 am.

Those who were queuing from early hours on Friday told N1 their primary motives were travels, ‘civil duty,’ and that the voucher was an additional benefit.

The move followed a relatively poor response to the state’s call for vaccination, although Serbia’s authorities have secured enough quantity of four types of vaccines.

And despite President Aleksandar Vucic’s unfulfilled hope that at least 500,000 people would follow suit after he got the shot.

On Thursday, among the first to get a shot was a folk music star Jelena Karleusa, accompanied by the Belgrade Deputy Mayor Goran Vesic.

Filip Krainčanić / Nova.rs

Her statement about the need for vaccination was aired on all TV channels in Serbia.

Analysts and some opposition politicians said it was sad that people had to be motivated by vouchers to get vaccinated, showing the real situation in the country whose leaders maintained it was the regional economic leader and one of the most successful in Europe.