Due to Europe-wide delays in coronavirus vaccine deliveries, Poland received only 176,000 doses this week and expects a further 296,000 in each of the coming weeks, instead of the expected weekly transport of 360,000 doses.
As a result, some hospitals have been unable to start rolling out vaccinations to the general public and have had to delay administering first doses to medical staff. Vaccinations of elderly people are still expected to begin to plan next week.
Daily number of coronavirus vaccines administered in Poland (Gov.pl under CC BY 3.0 PL)
Poland’s problems are part of a wider European issue, with Pfizer and BioNTech not delivering as many vaccines as planned.
The companies said on Friday that the current “temporarily” slowdown in deliveries is due to changes in the manufacturing process that will allow more doses to be produced this year, including “a significant increase in doses available for patients in late February and March”.
Because of the delays, vaccinations of Poland’s so called “zero group” – mainly comprised of healthcare workers – will be extended until as late as the end of February. Instead of the planned 330,000 patients from the group to be vaccinated this week, only 130,000 will receive the jab.
A number of hospitals in Poland have suspended administering the first dose, in order to save up second doses for those who require them, reports PAP.
Many social welfare housing (DPS) facilities, where vaccinations are to run between Monday and Friday this week, have already faced slips in their timetables due to delayed deliveries.
There are currently around 70,000 patients registered for the jab at such facilities, and many rely on visits by mobile vaccination teams from nearby medical facilities.
Poland is, however, still expected to begin vaccinating people aged over 70 years according to plan on 25 January. Those aged 80 years and over could register on 15 January, while those aged 70 years and over will be able to sign up from 22 January.
As of Tuesday morning, Poland had vaccinated 495,164 people in total. There have been 1.47 million expressions of interest in vaccinations across 5,593 registration points.
According to Michał Kuczmierowski, head of the state Material Reserves Agency (ARM), by Monday Poland had received a total of 1,257,300 doses.
Of these, 709,215 had been delivered to vaccination points and 548,085 put in storage to provide second doses, reports Business Insider.
Main image credit: Krystian Maj/KPRM/Flickr (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
