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Nearly 3 million COVID-19 shots administered in Poland: gov't data

25.02.2021 10:45
A total of 2,990,683 COVID-19 vaccine shots have been administered in Poland so far, including 154,633 over the last 24 hours, officials announced on Thursday.
Polands Health Minister Adam Niedzielski seen on a screen as he briefs reporters during a virtual news conference on Wednesday.
Poland's Health Minister Adam Niedzielski seen on a screen as he briefs reporters during a virtual news conference on Wednesday.Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka

Public health authorities said that 3,103 adverse reactions had been reported among those who received the vaccines by Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, a total of 4,342 doses have been wasted in the rollout, according to the Polish health ministry.

As of Thursday, Poland had injected almost 1.96 million first doses, while more than 1 million people have received a second shot, health ministry data showed.

Poland on Thursday reported 12,142 new coronavirus infections and 286 more deaths, bringing its total number of cases during the pandemic to 1,673,252 and fatalities to 43,094.

The government last week announced a plan to roll out 16 mobile COVID-19 vaccination units to supplement a network of around 6,000 stationary inoculation centres.

The Polish prime minister’s chief of staff, Michał Dworczyk, who is in charge of the national immunization campaign, has told reporters that the top priority is to vaccinate as many Poles as possible within the shortest possible time.

Health Minister Adam Niedzielski has said that the country hopes to vaccinate 60 to 70 percent of its population against the coronavirus by the autumn.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced in December that his government had secured vaccines for the Polish population from six leading international drug makers.

Dworczyk said this month that the country had ordered almost 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in total, enough to inoculate 58 million people, more than its population of around 38 million.

Michał Dworczyk, the official in charge of Poland's COVID-19 vaccination campaign. Michał Dworczyk, the man in charge of Poland's COVID-19 vaccination campaign. Photo: PAP/Łukasz Gągulski

The European Union, of which Poland is part, has struck deals to secure vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZenecaModernaCureVacSanofi-GSK, and Johnson & Johnson.

Niedzielski said this month that around 6.7 million coronavirus vaccine doses were expected to reach Poland by the end of March, including 4.8 million from Pfizer/BioNTech, 1.15 million from AstraZeneca, and 744,000 from Moderna.

Poland's Health Minister Adam Niedzielski speaks during a press conference on Monday, Feb. 15, 2021. Poland's Health Minister Adam Niedzielski speaks during a press conference this month. Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka

The prime ministers of Poland, Spain, Denmark and Belgium and the president of Lithuania this week called for stepped-up deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines in the EU.

Poland's Morawiecki last week called on the EU's executive to use its sway to ensure the timely delivery of COVID-19 vaccines amid delays in supplies from drug producers.

"Europe is a powerful market that has been hard hit by COVID-19," Morawiecki said. "Every day we are all paying a huge price for displaying a weakness toward drug makers. We can't stand aside and watch the next waves of infections engulf us."

(gs/pk)

Source: IAR, gov.pl