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| - A fresh spike in coronavirus cases pushed Bosnia's main Covid-19 hospital into crisis Monday, as the country battled one of the world's highest fatality rates while short of vaccines. Sarajevo's main Covid-19 hospital recalled all available staff from holidays after declaring a "state of emergency" Monday, said director Sebija Izetbegovic. "The staff is exhausted," Izetbegovic wrote on Facebook. "We will continue to do what is possible to save lives, but the situation is really critical. More and more of our employees are sick." Local authorities have been pleading for more resources to help the health system. According to an AFP count, Bosnia is among the top 10 countries with the highest Covid-19 deaths per capita in the world, at a rate of 1,702 deaths per million people. The country of 3.5 million has so far received around 50,000 doses of vaccines, including the Russian-made Sputnik V and a batch of Oxford/AstraZeneca jabs donated by neighbouring Serbia. The government has expressed its disappointment about delays to the Covax scheme, an EU-backed pooling initiative to ensure vaccine access to low-income countries. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas last week said Covax was set to deliver more than a million vaccine doses to western Balkan countries "in the coming weeks and until the end of May", including 130,000 for Bosnia. Many Balkan countries are seeing a sharp rises in case, with neighbouring Montenegro also among the world's top 10 highest fatality rates. dd-rus/mbs/ssm/jj
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