People get registered to receive COVID-19 vaccines in Belgrade, Serbia on Jan. 25, 2021. After the arrival of the first million doses of the Chinese Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine, Serbia started with mass vaccination on Jan. 19. (Photo by Nemanja Cabric/Xinhua)

Serbia will become the first country in Europe to produce China-developed inactivated COVID-19 vaccines as the country has reached an agreement with Sinopharm, the Chinese company announced Tuesday.   

The production line in Serbia will be able to deliver about three million doses of vaccines per month and is set to produce 10 million doses of Sinopharm's inactivated vaccine, according to the announcement. 

The first batch of the doses will be provided to the local Serbian market to help the country fight against the epidemic, according to the announcement.

Prior to the latest cooperation with Serbia, Sinopharm also localized production by working with partners in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Morocco. Sinovac, another major Chinese COVID-19 vaccine producer has built a production line in Egypt.

Another European country, Hungary, has also announced a plan to produce Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccine in a local factory, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

Global Times