Serbian diner thanks those getting COVID shots with plates of roast meat

[May 24, 2021]  Kragujevac, SERBIA(Reuters) - Get a COVID-19 vaccine and you will be served a plate of spit-roast ox or wild game goulash for free - in the Serbian city of Kragujevac.

Restaurateur Stavro Raskovic offered the popular local dishes on Tuesday as his way of promoting vaccination and campaigning for the full reopening of the country's restaurants, cafes and bars which can only serve patrons outdoors.

Lockdowns in 2020 and partial restrictions this year, have driven Biblioteka kod Milutina (Milutin's Library) restaurant to the brink, said Raskovic, as dozens lined up to get their jab and a plate of charcoal-roasted meat.

"Our trade, catering, has been particularly hit... and if this (vaccination) is the way out, then we wanted to contribute," he told Reuters.

Local health authorities turned the main restaurant's hall into a vaccination point to deliver shots made by Pfizer/BioNtech, and China's Sinopharm.

"Today... we have (vaccines from) both East and West on the menu, to everybody's taste," said Raskovic.

Last December, Serbia started a nationwide inoculation campaign, allowing people to choose either the Pfizer/BioNtech, AstraZeneca/Oxford, Russian Sputnik V or Sinopharm shot.

Bane Jajic, a 63 years-old man from Kragujevac, praised Raskovic's idea while enjoying a plate of roast ox and a beer.

Customers have their meals at a restaurant where people are receiving doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Kragujevac, Serbia, May 4, 2021. At the Biblioteka kod Milutina restaurant whoever decides to get vaccinated is served a free meal on Tuesday, as a one-time offer to promote vaccination and contribute to the reopening of cafes, restaurants and bars. REUTERS/Marko Djurica

"Some day ... someone will say that uncle Bane was vaccinated right here," he said.

Around a third of Serbia's population of 7 million have received at least one vaccine dose so far. COVID-19 has killed 6,456 people in the Balkan country and 694,473 were infected.

(Reporting by Fedja Grulovic and Marko Djurica; Writing by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)

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