By Mladen Aleksic
In a promo video, Vicar-Bishop Stefan of the Serbian Orthodox Church called for vaccination against COVID-19.
“I was vaccinated to serve you. Get vaccinated too, above all to save your life,” he said in the video, which is part of the government’s campaign for vaccination.
Deputy Mayor of Belgrade, Goran Vesic, on his Facebook page thanked Bishop Stefan: “I want to thank vicar-bishop Stefan for joining the campaign of the City of Belgrade, which invites the citizens of Belgrade to be vaccinated.
The Serbian Orthodox Church has always been with its people throughout history, even today when we fight the COVID-19 virus. Vaccination is the only way to defeat the virus and return to a normal life. Belgrade wins!”.
The situation with the COVID-19 and clergy of the Serbian Orthodox Church is also very difficult. It is well known that many faithful people, monks, priests, died of COVID-19, even some clergy.
Bishop Milutin of Valjevo died of COVID-19, just like Metropolitan Amfilohije, bishop Atanasije and even Patriarch Irinej.
While the funeral of Bishop Milutin (died on March 30, 2020) was without faithful, the funerals of Bishop Atanasije, Metropolitan Amfilohije and Patriarch Irinej gathered a large number of people.
Also, it is noted that many bishops had the COVID-19 virus but they overcame it. Vicar-bishop Stefan, who is now calling people to get vaccinated, had COVID-19 in April last year.
Serbia has 551,128 registered COVID-19 cases with 4,934 deaths, so far. Available vaccines in Serbia are Sinopharm, Pfizer/BioNTech, Sputnik V and AstraZeneca, for now.
As the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government reported from the regional web portal (Radio Free Europe) 1,283,637 citizens received the vaccine against the COVID-19 (approx. 18% of the population) and from that number until Friday (March 19) 825,981 people were revaccinated (approx. 12% of the population).
936,813 received the Sinopharm vaccine, 129,578 were immunized with the Pfizer/BioNTech, and 111,553 people received the Sputnik V, while 105,693 citizens were vaccinated with AstraZeneca vaccine.
