Over 100,000 children were registered for COVID-19 vaccines on the first day they became available for kids aged between the ages of five and 11. The first jabs will be administered tomorrow.
At the start of this month, the government announced that the vaccines, which have until now been available to anyone aged 12 and above, would also be offered to children aged five and over. Registration opened yesterday.
This morning, the health ministry announced that the number of children aged between five and 11 already signed up had passed 100,000. There are around 2.7 million children in Poland in that age group eligible for the vaccine.
📣 Przekroczyliśmy właśnie pułap 100 tys. dzieci w wieku 5-11 lat zapisanych na szczepienie przeciw #COVID19.
📊 Najwięcej zapisów jest w grupie 11-latków – blisko 20,5 tys. W grupie 10-latków mamy z kolei ponad 18 tys. zgłoszeń, a wśród 9-latków – blisko 16 tys. #szczepimysię— Ministerstwo Zdrowia (@MZ_GOV_PL) December 15, 2021
Health minister Adam Niedzielski encouraged parents to register their children as a “present” before Christmas, reports Polsat News.
As in the previous stages of the vaccine rollout, registration is available either online, through a telephone hotline, or by sending a text message. A child’s parent or other legal guardian must complete the registration and also needs to be present when the jab is administered.
Children will receive the Pfizer vaccine, which was previously recommended by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and approved by European Commission for this age group.
Children will be given one third of the adult dose, with two jabs three weeks apart, Karolina Pyziak-Kowalska, a vaccine coordinator at the Warsaw Infection Clinic, told TVN24.
A number of medical experts have sought to reassure parents that they should not fear vaccinating their kids.
“We know that the vaccine is safe, not only from clinical trials…but also because several million children aged five to 11 have been vaccinated in the US,” Lidia Stopyra, head of the infectious diseases ward at Warsaw’s Żeromski Hospital told Onet. “We know that the millions of doses administered do not cause adverse reactions.”
Niedzielski and the education minister, Przemysław Czarnek, earlier this month also sent out a joint letter encouraging parents of soon-to-be-eligible children to sign them up for the vaccine.
“Vaccines are not only effective protection but also a chance to continue school education throughout the year,” said the letter. Last week, in response to a recent surge in coronavirus infections, the government decided that from 20 December to 10 January all schools are to return to remote learning.
Poland’s vaccine rollout initially proceeded at roughly the same pace as the European Union average. However, since the summer it has fallen significantly behind. Around 55% of people in Poland are now fully vaccinated, compared to a figure of 68% across the EU as a whole.
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
