Poland, which is seeking ways of speeding up the process of inoculating citizens amid a spike in coronavirus cases, has ordered 16 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
‘Every day counts!’
"No time to waste! Every day counts!" Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki wrote on Thursday on social media, exactly a year since the first COVID-19 infection was reported in Poland.
He added that the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine had already been approved for use in the United States.
The European Medicines Agency, the EU’s drug regulator, is on March 11 expected to issue an opinion on whether to approve Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine under a speedy review.
Johnson & Johnson has said it is ready to start distributing its shots across the EU in the second quarter of 2021.
Photo: Hakan Nural/Anadolu Agency/PAP/ABACAPRESS.COM
Meanwhile, Polish biotechnology firm Mabion has struck a deal with US drug maker Novavax to produce a COVID-19 vaccine, officials announced on Wednesday.
Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said the European Medicines Agency had opened a fast-track “rolling review” procedure for the Novavax vaccine.
The European Union, of which Poland is part, has struck deals to secure vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Moderna, CureVac, Sanofi-GSK, and Johnson & Johnson.
Poland on Thursday reported 15,250 new coronavirus infections and 289 more deaths, bringing its total number of cases during the pandemic to 1,750,659 and fatalities to 44,649.
(pk)
Source: PAP/IAR