BELGRADE, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Serbia on Friday received the third shipment of COVID-19 vaccines from China, President Aleksandar Vucic has said.

File photo of Vucic (Photo: AFP)

Vucic welcomed the shipment at the Belgrade Airport on Friday evening and posted a video on social media, in which he expressed gratitude to China and urged citizens to take part in the vaccination campaign.

The first and second batches of Chinese COVID-19 vaccines reached Serbia on Jan. 16 and Feb. 10 respectively.

A man receives a dose of Chinese-made Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine in Belgrade Fair turned into a vaccination centre, on February 12, 2021. (Photo: AFP)

On Jan. 19, Serbia started its national vaccination campaign to rein in the spread of the novel coronavirus.

In the past several days, the daily number of new COVID-19 cases across the European country has been peaking above 4,000, while 4,161 COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalized, according to the health ministry.

So far, Serbia has confirmed 478,878 COVID-19 cases, while 4,525 patients have died of the disease.