English Section

Officials expect 600,000 COVID-19 vaccines to reach Poland by first week of January

22.12.2020 13:18
Polish officials said on Tuesday they expect nearly 600,000 coronavirus vaccines to reach their country by the first week of January.
Image by Ri Butov from Pixabay
Image by Ri Butov from Pixabay Pixabay licence

A day after an EU regulator recommended conditional approval for a vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech, the prime minister's top aide, Michał Dworczyk, confirmed that the first batch of around 10,000 doses would reach Poland on December 26.

These will be delivered to 70 medical centres, which will start administering vaccinations on December 27, state news agency PAP reported.

The agency added that the government aimed to carry out about 3.5 million vaccinations a month as further supplies arrive.

First in line for shots will be healthcare staff, followed by pensioners in care homes, people over 60 (with the oldest given priority), police, soldiers and teachers, officials have said.


Michał Dworczyk, the Polish PM’s chief of staff. Photo: PAP/Maciej Kulczyński Michał Dworczyk, the Polish PM’s chief of staff. Photo: PAP/Maciej Kulczyński

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.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced earlier this month that his government had secured vaccines from six leading international drug makers.

As part of its inoculation programme, the country plans to have around 8,000 vaccination sites nationwide, according to Dworczyk.

Poland on Tuesday reported 7,192 new coronavirus infections and 309 more deaths, bringing its total number of cases to 1,214,525 and fatalities to 25,783.

(pk)

Source: PAP