Serbia on Sunday donated a first batch of 8,000 doses of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines to North Macedonia, which is yet to deliver its first jabs, AP reported. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and North Macedonian PM Zoran Zaev attended a border checkpoint handover ceremony of the shipment, praising friendship between the two neighboring Balkan states.

Nearly 5,000 doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech coronavirus vaccines were flown on Tuesday to Serbia, the first country in the Balkans to get a COVID-19 vaccine, news wires reported.

Serbia’s PM Ana Brnabic said on Monday the Balkan country plans to start laboratory testing of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus and it will also continue talks with drugmaker Pfizer about purchasing its shot.

Not enough beds and not enough doctors: a skyrocketing coronavirus caseload is pushing hospitals in the Balkans to the cusp of collapse, in chaotic scenes reminding some medics of the region's 1990s wars, AFP reported. In the Western Balkans, one of Europe's poorest corners, the crisis is exposing gaps in healthcare systems that have long suffered from low funding and a brain drain crisis, with an exodus of promising young doctors and nurses leaving to seek better wages and training abroad.

The new Serbian government will be in power for less than two years, half of its regular term, Aleksandar Vucic, the country's president and the head of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which won a landslide victory in June, said on Tuesday.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Monday nominated Prime Minister Ana Brnabic to remain in office for another term, news wires reported. “I think this was a good choice,” Vucic, who is head of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), told a news conference.

The US State Department praised Serbia on Sunday for its decision to designate Lebanon’s Shiite Iran-backed Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization, news wires reported. Move by Belgrade was said to be part of US-brokered deal with Kosovo reached earlier this month. Pristina has already recognized both the military and political wings of Hezbollah as a terror group in June.

The EU voiced "serious concern and regret" over Serbia's pledge to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, news wires reported. Muslim-majority Kosovo also agreed to normalize its ties with Israel, including establishing diplomatic relations. Kosovo's president, Hashim Thaci said that his country "will keep a promise to place its diplomatic mission in Jerusalem."

EU-mediated negotiations on normalising relations between Serbia and its former province of Kosovo could lead to a deal within months, the EU's envoy on the issue said. But according to Miroslav Lajcak, it would be a mistake to forecast a date as there were still ”very complicated issues to address”.

Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza on Thursday issued a ban on air, road and rail travel from Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo to Italy due to the COVID crisis, ANSA reported. They have been added to the list of 13 countries considered to be at high risk for coronavirus spread.