SARAJEVO, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- Republika Srpska (RS), one of the two entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), has ordered vaccines from Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinopharm, Minister of Health and Social Welfare of RS Alen Seranic said Monday.

RS institutions have been following all the scientific effects and references of vaccines from all producers, including China, and the efficiency, quality and safety of vaccines are the three criteria that all vaccines entering RS must fulfill, Seranic told Xinhua in an interview.

"Based on other countries' experiences where Chinese vaccine is already approved, we decided that we also need to acquire a certain number of vaccines from China," said Seranic.

"We already ordered vaccines for 20 percent of our population," he said, adding that ordering vaccines from China "will make us happy to be able to offer different kinds of vaccines to the citizens."

BiH has acquired vaccines through the COVAX mechanism and from the European Union.

"A month ago, we started the activities with the Chinese Embassy in BiH which supported all our efforts to buy vaccines from China and we hope the activities will be successfully finished soon," said Seranic.

RS has cooperated with Sinopharm on a project of building a hospital in Doboj, some 150 km north of the BiH capital Sarajevo, the minister said.

"Based on a very good cooperation and based on honesty and efforts from Sinopharm to help us with this project, we decided to continue that cooperation and to buy a certain number of vaccines from the Chinese producer," he added.

Launched in April 2020, the COVAX mechanism led by the World Health Organization aims to bring together governments, manufacturers, scientists and all other stakeholders to provide innovative and equitable access to COVID-19 diagnostics, treatments and vaccines.