Waldemar Kraska said: “I know that there are many people willing to be the first... I think it will also be a media event."
The first batch of coronavirus vaccines are expected to arrive in Poland on Saturday and the first 10,000 Polish citizens are set to be inoculated a day later.
Priority will be given to healthcare staff, followed by pensioners in care homes, people over 60, police, soldiers and teachers.
Poles who are in non-priority groups will be able to sign up for COVID-19 shots from January 15, Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said on Wednesday.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Monday recommended conditional approval for a coronavirus vaccine produced by US pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech for use across the European Union.
The decision by the EU regulator was later in the day greenlighted by the bloc’s executive, the European Commission.
Poland on Wednesday reported 12,361 new coronavirus infections and 472 more deaths, bringing its total number of cases to 1,226,883 and fatalities to 26,255.
Polish officials said on Tuesday they expected nearly 600,000 coronavirus vaccines to reach their country by the first week of January.
Poland plans to spend PLN 3 billion (EUR 675m, USD 820m) on over 60 million doses of coronavirus vaccines under a national inoculation programme adopted by the government.
(pk)
Source: PAP