This is largely due to Poland’s extensive network of vaccination sites and the early inclusion of primary care physicians in the inoculation drive, Germany’s Die Welt daily has reported.
With 10.8 vaccine doses per 100 inhabitants, Poland is way ahead of its western neighbour Germany in terms of the inoculation rate and also ahead of Spain, which is another large EU country doing well in vaccinating its citizens, Die Welt reported in an article penned by its Warsaw correspondent Philipp Fritz.
European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen last month praised Poland for its efforts to roll out COVID-19 vaccines to the public.
Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Paweł Jabłoński said in a tweet at the time that von der Leyen identified Poland, Denmark, and Italy "as three examples of a quick and effective vaccination campaign within the EU."
Over 4.5 million COVID-19 shots administered
A total of 4,530,783 COVID-19 vaccine shots have been administered in Poland so far, including 11,069 over the last 24 hours, officials announced on Monday.
As of Monday, Poland had injected more than 2.9 million first doses, while over 1.6 million people have received a second shot, health ministry data showed.
Poland on Monday reported 10,896 new coronavirus infections and 28 more deaths, bringing its total number of cases during the pandemic to 1,917,527 and fatalities to 47,206.
The country on Monday began administering COVID-19 vaccines to cancer patients and people suffering from various chronic health conditions.
Frontline healthcare workers were first in line to be inoculated in Poland, followed by nursing home residents.
Other priority groups for vaccination include the elderly, teachers, police, and soldiers.
More than 6,000 vaccination sites are available to citizens as the country rolls out its COVID-19 inoculation programme, according to the prime minister's top aide, Michał Dworczyk, who is spearheading the drive.
On Monday, a fresh supply of around 380,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Poland, Deputy Health Minister Waldemar Kraska told the media.
Race to vaccinate
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 last 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.
Dworczyk said last Wednesday that Poland had secured assurances from vaccine manufacturers that around 15 million COVID-19 vaccine doses would be delivered to the country in the second quarter of this year.
This will include 2.5 million single-dose Johnson & Johnson shots, he told a news conference.
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.
Niedzielski said last 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.
He told a news conference earlier this month that Poland had ordered 16 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by US drug maker Johnson & Johnson and that the first shipments were expected to arrive in April.
(gs/pk)
Source: dw.com