Outgoing Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and new Prime Minister Petr Fiala are jointly supporting the initiative “Let’s vaccinate a million people with a booster dose in a week and help our paramedics.”
According to Babiš, the project aims to help hospitals and vaccination centers deal with the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. The initiative wants more doctors to join the vaccination process. The presence of the two prime ministers at the press conference indicates the seriousness of the situation.
Babiš stated that it is necessary to increase the capacity of large vaccination centers to 150,000 doses administered in a day. According to him, general practitioners in their surgeries administer about 80,000 doses a week.
“There is a need to develop both paths, to support large-capacity centers and, on the other hand, for GPs and insurance companies to actively reach out to the unvaccinated,” Fiala said.
Babiš and Fiala both declared an interest in vaccinating as many people as possible.
According to mathematician René Levínský, 30 percent of patients currently in the intensive care unit are vaccinated. If half of the people who were five months after the completed vaccination got vaccinated with the third dose soon, the number of these patients in the ICU would decrease to a half. According to him, surveys show that two-thirds of those vaccinated want a booster dose, so it is just a matter of speed and logistics.
“We have a way to help. Administer as many booster doses as possible in a short time,” advises the dentist and the member of the Doctors Help the Czech Republic initiative, Radek Mounajjed.
As the epidemiological situation worsens, he would like to vaccinate a million seniors who need a booster dose in a week.
In cooperation with the National Agency for Communication and Information Technologies, a simple system should be set up, in which doctors would register, reserve part of the office hours, and estimate the number of people they could vaccinate. Vaccines would be ordered for them automatically. Those interested in booster vaccination could then choose the doctors in the area on an interactive map and sign up directly. They do not even have to be patients of the given surgery.
“No one can change what happens in the hospitals in the next 14 days. Each application of the third dose will protect the individual so that they do not end up in intensive care,” explained František Duška from the Royal Vinohrady University Hospital.
