People aged 16 and 17 will be able to register for coronavirus vaccines in Poland from Monday, the health minister, Adam Niedzielski, has announced. A regulation to that effect will be signed by the government today.
To receive a vaccine, minors will require the consent of their legal guardians, but the latter will not have to be present during the jab itself. A registration form will appear on the health ministry’s website on Sunday, said deputy minister Anna Goławska.
📣ℹ️ Od poniedziałku rusza rejestracja 16 i 17-latków na szczepienia. 💉
Szczegóły ⤵️⤵️⤵️https://t.co/AZTFQrJXJO— Ministerstwo Zdrowia (@MZ_GOV_PL) May 14, 2021
For the time being, only Pfizer vaccines will be administered, as they are the only ones that have been approved by the European Medicines Agency for use on people aged 16 and 17.
Teenagers in Poland have been attending school remotely since the autumn. Most children will return to “hybrid” (a mix of online and in-person) learning on Monday, with schools scheduled to fully reopen on 29 May.
Separately, it was announced today that Poland has become one of the first countries in Europe to collaborate with Google in making it possible for users to find vaccination points on Google Maps.
Polska jest jednym z pierwszych krajów w Europie, w którym uruchamiamy możliwość sprawdzenia lokalizacji punktów szczepień przeciwko COVID-19 w wyszukiwarce i na Mapach we współpracy ze @SzczepimySie. Więcej informacji tutaj: https://t.co/KqMMVIitdN pic.twitter.com/Y8ampatEjY
— Marta Poslad (@MartaPoslad) May 14, 2021
As of this morning, Poland had administered more than 15 million doses of coronavirus vaccine, with over 4.2 million people (around 11.2% of the population) fully vaccinated. That is slightly below the European Union average of 12.4%.
Amid concerns over the vaccination rate among the elderly, this week the health ministry instructed doctors to contact any of their patients over the age of 60 who have not yet received a jab. Among the over-80s, only around 57% have receive at least one dose of a vaccine in Poland. That is among the lowest figures in the EU.
Main image credit: Adam Guz/KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
