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Poland to share millions of COVID-19 vaccines with other countries: official

14.07.2021 13:00
Poland plans to resell its surplus of COVID-19 vaccines to other countries, the government commissioner for the national vaccination programme has said.
Michał Dworczyk, the man in charge of Polands COVID-19 vaccination campaign, seen on a screen during a virtual news conference.
Michał Dworczyk, the man in charge of Poland's COVID-19 vaccination campaign, seen on a screen during a virtual news conference.Photo: PAP/Piotr Nowak

Michał Dworczyk told Poland’s PAP news agency that the number of doses to be resold would “depend on the level of vaccine uptake in the country.”

Michał Kuczmierowski, head of the Government Strategic Reserves Agency (RARS), which is expected to oversee the resale operation, said that Poland had ordered a total of about 100 million doses from various producers and that deliveries were expected to continue until the end of the first quarter of 2022.

Prezes Rządowej Agencji Rezerw Strategicznych Michał Kuczmierowski Michał Kuczmierowski, head of the Government Strategic Reserves Agency. Photo: PAP/Grzegorz Michałowski

Nearly 41 million doses of various COVID-19 vaccines have arrived in Poland so far, according to government data.

Under contracts signed with the European Commission, Poland has at least 4 million doses available for resale outside the country.

"However, we plan to sell many more vaccines … even tens of millions of doses,” Kuczmierowski said.

Poland’s surplus vaccines will go to Ukraine and Georgia—as part of the European Union’s Eastern Partnership initiative to reach out to its eastern neighbours—and to selected Balkan countries, Kuczmierowski told reporters.

Meanwhile, Australia and Vietnam have also expressed an interest in purchasing vaccines from Poland, according to the daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

As of Wednesday, Poland had injected more than 17.5 million first doses of COVID-19 vaccines, while almost 15.5 million people had been fully inoculated, officials announced.

The tally includes two-dose vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca as well as Johnson & Johnson's one-shot vaccine.

Poland on Wednesday reported 86 new coronavirus infections and six more deaths related to COVID-19, bringing the country's total number of cases during the pandemic to 2,881,046 and fatalities to 75,179.

(mrs/gs)

Source: PAP