Poland’s health ministry is today sending text messages to more than 15.5 million fully vaccinated people to invite them to register for a booster jab against coronavirus.
Numbers of new infections and Covid-related deaths are continuing to spiral in Poland as the country experiences its fourth wave. The government, however, says that it has no plans to introduce additional restrictions beyond obligatory indoor masking.
“Thank you for being among the vaccinated,” begins the text that 12.25 million people began receiving from the health ministry this morning. The message goes on to inform them of the date when they will be eligible to register for a booster jab, noting that their Covid certificate will then be extended by a year.
A further 3.25 million people in Poland are receiving a similar message stating that they they are already able to register and can do so by calling the health ministry’s hotline on 989.
All adults can currently receive a booster jab if at least six months have passed since their previous vaccination – either a second dose by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca, or the single-dose Johnson&Johnson vaccine. Almost 5 million e-referrals have now been issued for booster jabs, with 1.6 million people already receiving them.
“We must remember that with the Delta variant of the virus the booster jab improves the immunity of the person who got it,” explained Adam Niedzielski, the health minister.
The aim of the SMS campaign is to “promote the booster jab as widely as possible and this way build higher immunity of Polish society,” and text messages are “a tool to increase interest in the vaccination”, he added.
Poland today reported more than 23,000 new daily cases and over 400 deaths, following similarly high numbers in the last two days and continuing a sharp rise in recent months. But health ministry officials say that as long as there are enough beds in hospitals they “do not see the need to introduce additional restrictions”.
More than 20 million people in Poland have now been fully vaccinated, around 54% of the total population, compared to over 70% in the EU as a whole. As the vaccine rollout slowed in the country, the government tried various measures to boost the rate including telephoning people who had previously declared an interest in getting vaccinated but failed to register.
Since the beginning of the pandemic over 80,000 people died in Poland, while over 3.3 million have now become infected with coronavirus.
Main image credit: Adam Guz/KPRM
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
