The Polish government has pledged to provide a coronavirus vaccine by the end of this year for “everyone willing” to receive one.
The vaccine rollout in Poland is entering a new stage, as the mass vaccination of medical services is soon to be complete and the inoculation of teachers is to kick off next week. Meanwhile, polling continues to show that Poles are becoming less hesitant about getting the jab.
“By the end of 2021, everyone willing to get the jab will have such an opportunity,” Michał Dworczyk, the government official responsible for the vaccine rollout, told state radio on Thursday,
He predicts that the majority of Poles will be able to get vaccinated in the third or fourth quarter of the year. However, the situation depends on the delivery schedule, admits Dworczyk. Poland’s vaccination timetable has already been pushed back by Europe-wide delays in production.
Poland has so far administered over 1.5 million doses of the vaccine, with almost 1.2 million people having received the first dose and almost 400,000 having had two doses. That translates to around four doses per 100 people, slightly above the EU-wide average.
Today, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced that over 90% of medical staff have received the first dose of the vaccine, which means that the first stage of the vaccination rollout is soon coming to an end.
“We are opening up the health care system, contact with the doctor won’t be such a risk anymore,” said the prime minister during a press conference at which he also announced the loosening of some of Poland’s lockdown restrictions.
Two weeks ago, Poland began registering those aged over 70, and started to administer doses to them soon after.
Next week, it will launch a mass vaccination programme for teachers, beginning with those working with the youngest three year groups, who returned to school last month, as well as staff in in preschools and nurseries, which have stayed open for most of the last year.
The government plans to inoculate this whole group by the end of February and subsequently start the vaccination of police officers and the armed forces.
In response to concerns voiced by Poland’s biggest teachers’ union about the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which the government has not approved for use on those aged over 60, Dworczyk tried to assuage their fears.
“There are no better or worse vaccines,” he told public radio. “All the vaccines that were approved for use in the EU are 100% safe and effective.”
Dworczyk added that the Anglo-Swedish vaccine producer is planning to conduct additional testing on the over-60s, which would allow for administering it to the elderly as well.
He also informed that Poland is not planning to acquire the Russian Sputnik V vaccine. So far Poland has relied entirely on Pfizer and Moderna jabs, with the first shipment from AstraZeneca expected to arrive tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Poles are becoming less hesitant about the vaccine, a new survey by CBOS found out. Now 56% of the respondents say they are willing to get the jab, while in November’s the same pollster found only 36% expressing such an opinion.
The survey found that people over 65 were generally more likely to accept the vaccination (74% declared they would take the jab), while the youngest age group, aged 18-24, was the most hesitant (with only 37% expressing willingness).
The main reason cited by people unwilling to receive the vaccine was fear of side effects (78%). So far, of the 1.5 million doses administered in Poland, in just over 1,000 cases have there been side effects, the great majority of them very mild, informs Gazeta Wyborcza.
Main image credit: DoD/Lisa Ferdinando (under CC BY 2.0)
Agnieszka Wądołowska is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She has previously worked for Gazeta.pl and Tokfm.pl and contributed to Gazeta Wyborcza, Wysokie Obcasy, Duży Format, Midrasz and Kultura Liberalna
