G.Nausėda reiterates: the goal is herd immunity until mid-summer

On Friday, President Gitanas Nausėda met remotely with the Mayor of Vilnius, Remigijus Šimašas.

According to G.Nausėda, the topics of the meeting with R.Šimašas were dictated by current affairs: preparation for vaccination.

He recalled that on Thursday he also interacted with the mayors of other large cities.

“Together, these large cities represent a third of the Lithuanian population. Of course, the success of the implementation of the vaccination strategy largely depends on their preparation,” emphasized the Head of State.

The President was pleased that the mayors of the cities assured that they are ready to increase vaccination rates from 3 to 5 times in a few days, both in terms of logistics, infrastructure and human resources.

“And thus achieve that ambitious goal, whose last stop or final goal is mass vaccination or herd immunity in mid-summer. Of course, this is not achieved so simply, because, first of all, no one can deny the problem of vaccine supply so far, and that problem does not exist in Lithuania, but in the whole of the European Union ”, G. Nausėda pointed out .

If the European Medicines Agency approves the AstraZeneca vaccine on Friday, 105,000 people could arrive in Lithuania in February. doses of this manufacturer’s vaccine. Together with the BioNTech and Pfizer and Modernos vaccines, in February we can receive a total of 200 thousand. dose of vaccine.

“Which would mean in real terms that already in the second half of February we should be ready to vaccinate about 10,000 people a day. Of course, in addition, in the second quarter, when the volume of vaccination increases even more and the offer must definitely increase in accordance with the plans of all the companies, we will have to be ready to vaccinate up to 35 thousand people a day ”. G. Nausėda said at the press conference.

Already in the second half of February, we should be ready to vaccinate about 10,000 people a day.

Excludes AstraZeneca

According to the COVID-19 vaccination plan announced by the Ministry of Health (SAM) this Friday, residents who are not at risk and do not have important responsibilities can wait for the first dose of the vaccine from July..

It is true that this is planned only in accordance with the BioNTech and Pfizer and Moderna vaccine delivery schedules.

When asked about the SAM plan, G. Nausėda explained that if we had enough vaccines, we would not have the opportunity to apologize to people for vaccinating them less than we had the vaccine.

“It seems to me that everything is clear and there is nothing more to talk about. If we don’t have enough vaccines, it will, of course, be an objective obstacle to an ambitious program to achieve herd immunity by mid-summer.

I believe that in your efforts, believe me, I have a lot of information and I myself am involved in the process, precisely in my dealings with the leaders of the European Commission, and those efforts are made every day. And, as you can see, those efforts even take quite drastic forms that are not common in everyday practice. And I’m sure they will work, ”said the president.

He stressed that we cannot project our steps into the future based on yesterday’s data. According to G.Nausėda, the current SAM plan is based on the fact that only two companies continue to supply vaccines to Lithuania.

Vilnius is ready

Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimašius stated that the capital, like other large cities in the country, is ready for mass vaccination.

He said 1,200 people were vaccinated in Vilnius on Thursday.

“As I told the president, if that number had to increase several times more, there would be no queues or problems, it could be increased five times in a row. Today four outpatient clinics do it. There are more polyclinics that can do it, “said R. Šimašius.

With a significant increase in vaccination coverage, Vilnius’s strategy, according to the mayor, is more “on the ground”, which has also been applied in testing.

“We don’t go to stadiums or hallways, or concert halls, or municipal buildings, or anywhere else, and we tend to go to people. As was the case with social workers, for example, during testing. It is usually the team. Whoever does the vaccinations would be good for a school, a social care institution, a company, or another place, and could do those things. It would be much smoother and easier, “thinks R. Šimašius.

We tend to get close to people ourselves.

Increasing speed is not a problem

On Thursday, R. Šimašius met with Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonyte.

At a remote press conference after the meeting, he said that if there were vaccines, Vilnius could vaccinate 10,000 people with COVID-19 a day. persons.

This year, about 1,000 people are vaccinated in four clinics in the capital.

“If there are more vaccines, we can increase the number of vaccines several times. There are four designated outpatient clinics. Vaccination is going well in all of them. Generally speaking, we are ready to significantly increase the volume of vaccination, if there are enough vaccines. R. Šimašius said on Thursday.