Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has promised an acceleration of the COVID-19 vaccination process from April. “From April 1st, we must have a vaccination capacity of 100,000 per day,” he said. The UK is currently leading the rest of Europe with more than 23 million doses administered. Photo Credit: Freepik / Illustrative Photo.
Czech Rep., March 15 (BD) – Since various COVID-19 vaccines were released to the international market from late December, the European Union has seen a relatively slow pace of vaccinations. However, in several EU states, daily vaccinations have recently been gathering speed, as Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) noted on Twitter on Sunday. He promised that the vaccination capacity in the Czech Republic will soon increase to 100,000 shots per day.
“We have so far administered more than 1,068,000 vaccines,” said Babiš. “In the last week, we have been vaccinating faster than Germany, Poland, and Slovakia. From April 1st, we must have a vaccination capacity of 100,000 per day.” Babiš outlined the primary vaccination goals for the rest of March in his regular Sunday broadcast on ANO’s YouTube channel: “The main goal is for us to have empty freezers by April 1st so that we can level up to a capacity of 100,000 vaccines a day from April 6th.” He added that the waiting time for booking a date for vaccination has been reduced, although there is still a need to accelerate the process. Over 298,000 people in the Czech Republic have already received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. On Saturday, 16,400 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered, an increase of 4,400 from the previous Saturday.
The slow pace of vaccinations also remains a challenge in other EU countries. As of March 14th, Malta is currently the leading country in the EU, with 24.3 vaccinations per 100 people, followed by Hungary (17.5) and Denmark (14.4). The Czech Republic, with 10 vaccinations per 100 people, ranks 21st in the EU27. The United Kingdom is leading the rest of Europe with more than 23 million doses of vaccine administered, or 38.6 vaccinations per 100 people. Globally, the countries with the most COVID-19 vaccines administered per capita are Israel, Seychelles, and the United Arab Emirates. Around 100, mostly poor countries, have not yet administered any vaccines at all.
