Poland’s government has approved the use of coronavirus vaccines on children aged 12 years and above. They can begin to receive Pfizer jabs from next Monday, 7 June.
On Friday last week, the European Medicines Agency approved the use of Pfizer and BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine, Comirnaty, for use on people aged 12 to 15. That decision was based on a trial involving over 2,000 participants in that age group, which found a similar immune response to those aged 16 to 25.
Yesterday, Poland’s Medical Council – an expert body that advises the prime minister – also gave its approval. Today, acting on that advice, the government announced that it would allow those aged 12 and above to receive the vaccine.
Children in this age group will from 7 June be able to register and receive vaccines in accordance with the existing regulations. Minors require the consent of their legal guardians, but the latter do not have to be present during the jab itself.
There are over 2.5 million children who will now be eligible for vaccines, said Michał Dworczyk, the minister in charge of Poland’s vaccine rollout. He added that research is now underway on the possibility of vaccinating children aged seven to 11, reports TVN24.
Dworczyk also confirmed that vaccines will not be offered in schools before the summer holidays. Instead, children can receive them at the same vaccination points as adults.
However, an information campaign about coronavirus vaccines will begin in schools this month, the education minister, Przemysław Czarnek, announced today. Then, after the start of the new academic year in September, vaccinations will be carried out in schools.
The health minister, Adam Niedzielski, also confirmed that, as of today, Poland has joined the European Union’s COVID-19 certificate system. Residents can be issued with a document certifying that they have been vaccinated, have a negative PCR test result, or have recently had COVID-19.
Poland has so far administered more than 20 million doses of coronavirus vaccines, with 7 million people fully vaccinated. Around 36% of the population had received at least one dose as of yesterday, slightly below the EU average of 38%.
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.
