A mobile vaccination team was launched on Monday morning in the town of Pitomaca in the northern Croatian Virovitica-Podravina County, and the COVID-19 vaccination bus is scheduled to visit six communities in the county on Monday alone, and 40 by the end of the week.

The rollout of the mobile teams comes as Croatia has recorded a slight drop in interest in inoculation in the recent days. However, problems with interest in vaccination were not expected on Monday, as locals were queuing in front of the bus to get vaccinated.

Nevertheless, Health Minister Vili Beros and the head of the Croatian Public Health Institute, Krunoslav Capak, who both attended the launch of the COVID-19 vaccination bus, were cautious in their answers on whether Croatia would manage to meet its target of vaccinating 55 percent of its adults by the end of June.

The national average at the moment is 42 percent, Capak said, adding that more than 400,000 people should receive their first shot over the next few weeks.

“There is a sufficient quantity of vaccines, and we are trying to attract as many people as possible with innovative approaches and campaigns,” he said.

It is clear that vaccination will not stop at the end of June, Beros said, and will continue throughout the summer.

“The figures we have mentioned are more for orientation purposes. What’s more important are the figures we will be recording in the autumn, when we will know the vaccination rate. Let’s hope we will all be aware of the need to achieve that goal because that is how we can prevent the virus from spreading further,” Beros said, adding that according to information he had from the ground, people living in rural areas were getting vaccinated more than those living in urban centres.