Increasingly more Poles want to get vaccinated, and according to a survey conducted by Social Changes, 44 percent of Poles have declared readiness to accept a vaccination. This is an 11-percentage point increase compared to a survey from mid-December, but still represents less than a majority of Poles who are willing to get the jab.
According to the Chief of the Prime Minister’s Chancellery Michał Dworczyk, Poland is the third country in Europe in terms of number of vaccinated people with 177,000 citizens already vaccinated. Italy is second, with 307,000 and Germany is first, with 367,000. Dworczyk underlined that the vaccination process will accelerate as time goes by. On Wednesday, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved the use of the vaccine produced by American Moderna. Its first deliveries to Poland will be completed next week and will amount to 29,000 doses. By the end of March, Poland is to receive approximately 800,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine. In terms of whether a patient will be able to choose between a Pfeizer or Moderna vaccine, minister Dworczyk stated that “at the current stage there will be no such choice because these are identical medical products. Also for now, only Pfizer’s vaccine is available in Poland.” The chief of the Prime Minister’s Chancellery also spoke in context of the Civic Platform’s recent postulate that a million people should be vaccinated per week. He stated that he treated comments concerning the number of people who needed to be vaccinated as a sign of interest in the National Vaccination Program.
Dworczyk explained that by the end of March, Poland will receive approximately 5.9 million doses of the vaccine which will allow for the vaccination of 2.95 million patients. “Therefore, if someone says, ‘Let’s vaccinate a million people per week’ they either don’t know what they’re talking about or are trying to create anxiety,” he said. He also stated that municipalities will assist the government with the National Vaccination Program — they will support the information and pro-turnout campaign, as well as organize transport for people with limited mobility. Dworczyk added that the government will fund 80 percent of the cost for anyone who needs to be transported to a location to receive their vaccine. The National Vaccination Program foresees 3 million people being vaccinated by the end of March. These will be persons among the so-called zero and first groups which include those most prone to infection, such as the elderly, teachers, paramedics, and uniform services.
