Retirees dissatisfied with vaccination queue: they want clearer vaccination procedures

The former senior citizens of the capital city are outraged, they have to wait a few minutes at the vaccination center:

“It just came to our attention then. Can I stand for that long after the operation? There are chairs and there is no one, no one cares.”

“Some find it difficult to stand up, others want clearer vaccination procedures.”

“Nobody understands what’s going on here. This is the allotted time, if you come at the allotted time, then do I have to stay last when I get vaccinated?”

“So many people, so who has been assigned that time? Will we be here in time?”

Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimašius will soon join the elders, he will be in the general queue. The latter assures that this week Vilnius finally received more vaccine, another 17 thousand doses are waiting on Friday, so the vaccination scale is greater. Today, 440 older adults have been invited to receive the Moderna vaccine in the municipality.

“It just came to our knowledge then. In some places we see that it takes longer and people are not even on time, but the queue moves fast, everything works so dirty,” says Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimašius.

During the long Easter weekend, the lines at vaccinations can be even longer. There will be 4 vaccination points in Vilnius. In total, about 12,000 people are expected to be vaccinated, mostly Astrazeneca. Seniors who have not yet been vaccinated, teachers, graduates and people with chronic diseases are invited to register online for vaccination.

Šimašius also applied to the Ministry of Health for permission to use the remaining vaccine residues at the end of the day. So far, Vilnius has dropped around 70 doses of the 106,000 vaccine.

“At the end of the workday, because it is full, it is the most disgusting thing about this system. We all know that vaccines are missing and those 1-2 doses must be discarded according to current instructions. It was me and other mayors who asked the ministry to allow those last doses, generally speaking, to vaccinate a person on the street, ”says R. Šimašius.

It is true that such proposals from the mayor did not receive support in the Ministry of Health. Chancellor Jurgita Grebenkovienė assures that currently, first of all, people who should receive the vaccine from the priority lists, and not people “from the street.”

“At the moment, we believe there is no need or need to make such a decision. Because the number of broken, discarded and unused bottles is very small. And once the process itself is in place, there should be no neutralized vaccines. , no unused vaccine residues, ”says Chancellor Jurgita Grebenkovienė.

Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė agrees: it is now necessary to vaccinate the most vulnerable people.

“Priority is given to the elderly and those most at risk of occupying resuscitation beds. Now the priorities must be where they are. First of all, the most vulnerable groups should be vaccinated, ”said Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė.

True, Kaunas, unlike Vilnius, promises to vaccinate residents on the Easter holiday weekend only one day: Saturday. It is estimated that a total of 31 doses of the vaccine were not used in Kaunas during the entire vaccination period; Another vial of AstraZeneca vaccine was used and broken.

According to the coordinator of the Kaunas Vaccination Center, employees have not been able to dispense a single dose of vaccine for a good month.

“When we only had the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, we had that problem because we couldn’t use them the next day. Once we get the AstraZeneca, it’s good for more than 48 hours, so we can use it the next day. Those doses don’t spill. ”, Says coordinator Justinas Dzidzevičius.

And how to accelerate the pace of vaccination in the long Easter weekend, President Gitanas Nausėda spoke of the mayors of remote municipalities. According to the president’s advisor, Simonas Krėpšta, Lithuania has received more than 100,000 doses of vaccines in the last three days alone.

“More than 130 thousand doses of vaccines have been received. And considering that we managed to vaccinate a record number of more than 18,000 people in one day, we have a lot of work to do to bring those vaccines to people, the elderly, ”says Simonas Krėpšta, adviser to the president.

And while the mayors of some municipalities are turning their heads for faster vaccination, others are indulging in the April 1 jokes. The mayor of the Raseiniai district today announced an unexpected message on his Facebook profile: the mayor announced that Raseiniai has received the Russian “Sputnik” vaccine.

“There was always a question, and maybe it will be the Sputnik vaccine at some point. It was appropriate to ask on April 1, there were some calls, I will not hide when it will be possible to start vaccination with the Sputnik vaccine. Here,” says the mayor of Raseiniai, Andrius Bautronis.

Such a joke forced the Ministry to also explain the Sputnik vaccine.

“We are really getting a lot of calls to the ministry when other municipalities will get Sputnik vaccines, when will they be used. It’s a question of how joke it is. We have to answer these more interesting questions from the population,” Grebenkovienė said.

And in the Faculty of Nursing of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, lectures at the university are held in a mixed way, evaluations and exams in person. It is true that the students, who probably decided to joke during the settlement, called the police, who assessed the situation upon arrival and did not find any violations.