Minister of Health M.D. Venko Filipce today met with Mladen Cadikovski, president of the Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM), and Dragan Sekulovski, Executive Director of (AJM), Tamara Grncharoska Paul Belovski, members of the Executive Board of the Independent Union of Journalists and Media Workers (SSNM).

The meeting focused on the importance of journalists being part of the priority groups for vaccination against COVID-19 due to the nature of their work and the high risk of exposure to this virus.

At the meeting, Minister Filipce informed that according to the National Plan for COVID-19 vaccination, journalists and media workers are already covered in the second phase of immunization, and these fall under the category of citizens of vital institutions for the functioning of the state, which means that journalists and media workers are vaccinated immediately after the end of vaccination of the groups provided in the first phase, for which vaccination started yesterday.

Vaccination for journalists and media workers from broadcasters, print, and online media will be voluntary throughout the country. The preparation of the lists of the media employees interested in the vaccination will have to be submitted by each media individually, in cooperation with AJM, SSNM, and the Ministry of Health. According to the Ministry of Health’s immunization protocols, the date for vaccination of the media workers will be determined. The details about the reporting procedure will follow during the next two weeks.