Pagėgiai Mayor on Government Criticism of Non-Priority Vaccination: Try to Invite Those People

Data published by the Department of Statistics shows that the average number of potentially co-immunized populations in Lithuania is approximately 33.4%.

In this table, not only the district of Šalčininkai, the municipality of Visaginas, which is constantly mentioned due to insufficient vaccination, but also the districts of Plungė, Klaipėda, Kretinga, Skuodas, the municipality of Pagėgiai are at the bottom.

The situation is not bad, but it is not calm either

Audrius Klišonis, Mayor of the Plung distrito district, evaluates this data quite calmly, although he does not hide his indignation:

“Because the municipality itself does not produce vaccines, it cannot be higher. We are currently close to 21 percent. all populations have been vaccinated, that is, almost 7 thousand. population has already received one dose of the vaccine, another 2,000. we have sick people.

By age groups, we look pretty bad in some of them. In the 65+ group we have almost 52% vaccinated, 75+ – almost 60%. and about 50 percent. over 80 years old.

The situation is not very bad, but it is not calm either, since the vaccines were taken from the municipality where the epidemiological situation is significantly better than the Lithuanian average. More than a week after the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine was scheduled to be administered to the elderly, we had to cancel every other person because vaccines had been cut in half. “

The situation is not very bad, but it is not calm either, since the vaccines were taken from the municipality where the epidemiological situation is better than the Lithuanian average.

According to the mayor, Plungė has been yellowing on the COVID-19 map of Lithuania for a long time, but now the number of infections is increasing: 14 new cases have been detected in the last day, although so far the average of seven days. he was only six years old.

We have to receive 600 doses of “Moderns” on Friday, which is not a small number, about 300 people will be vaccinated today and tomorrow. A queue of more than 55 people is building from Saturday, and we hope to use that vaccine in a few days.

Another 300 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have been received, and we will give it primarily to people living in the area who have difficulty entering, as the booster vaccination is an additional concern for both residents and their children who bring , as for our doctors. they need to go again.

We plan to receive another 1.1 thousand on Tuesday. dose to Johnson & Johnson, the mayor said.

Vaccinate everyone in a month and a half

A. Klišonis states that the district doctors can vaccinate about 600 people a day.

This means that in one week, if you worked all seven days, you could get around 4,000 shots. people.

According to the mayor’s calculations, about 7 thousand. The population already has at least one vaccine, almost 4 thousand. after receiving both doses, excluding children who are not vaccinated, there are about 7 thousand of them, that is, in a month and a half, if the supply of vaccines is stable and sufficient, everyone who wishes to can be vaccinated in Plungė district.

Until now, this area has not been among those in which people of any age could be vaccinated freely, as suggested by some other municipalities.

I think the Ministry of Health has lost control of the vaccination process.

“It just came to our attention then rat race. As I am involved in practically all the mergers with the Ministry of Health (SAM), where mayors and municipal doctors are also involved, it is strange and angry to hear when they take away our vaccines and deliver to the municipality of Vilnius, but Utena, other Municipalities of The surroundings organize trips to Vilnius and there they get vaccinated.

Who is doing this? Those municipalities have reached some kind of threshold and descend by age groups, it makes sense, but if you go up to 35+ and we have not yet been vaccinated, although there are established schedules for all 65-year-olds. +, we just don’t have vaccines.

At this point, I think SAM has lost that control over the course of vaccination. That decision, which we heard yesterday from the Honorable Minister Arūnas Dulkis, is the only option that can normalize the situation at least a little more. Today we have it like this, which will make the cartel go down even more ”, the head of the Plung district got angry.

According to him, the worst thing is that those municipalities where there were few diseases for a long time and turned yellow on the contagion map: “Our inhabitants are punished for keeping us in a good situation.”

He described the situation when part of the vaccines were taken from the municipalities and delivered to Vilnius as a “communicative tragedy”, as the mayors then had a remote meeting with the minister and the prime minister, during which the redistribution of vaccines did not even was mentioned.

The report came half an hour after the meeting.

Our residents are punished for keeping us in a good situation.

However, A. Klišonis does not lose hope; In his opinion, if the quantities of vaccines are sufficient, the mass vaccination plan announced by SAM will be implemented without problems.

The older people of Pagėgiai are very difficult to persuade

The mayor of Pagėgiai, Vaidas Bendaravičius, also points the finger first at the decision to reduce the number of vaccines for the municipality under his leadership:

“Vaccines were reduced for us, as for all of Lithuania, when people were called and talked about.

They promised us 300 vaccines, I’m talking about Pfizer, a hundred fell. It was said that we would not get AstraZeneca, but it happened to Pfizer. We really have a problem with AstraZeneca: people don’t want to get vaccinated. “

The proportion of the potentially immunized population in this municipality is around 28 percent. The mayor says that by looking at priority age groups, those over 65 are actively invited to get vaccinated, but not many want to do so.

“It just came to our knowledge then. But maybe when we start mass vaccination, maybe it will be easier, the mayor considered.” We vaccinate a large proportion of people over 40 years old.

They promised us 300 vaccines, I’m talking about Pfizer, a hundred fell. It was said that we would not get AstraZeneca, but it happened to Pfizer.

This is due, according to the mayor, to the special characteristics of vaccines: the open vial of Pfizer-BioNTech must be used. Therefore, if people from the priority group do not come, other people are invited.

“What you find, you grab,” says V. Bendaravičius.

It affirms that in the municipality the information on vaccination is disseminated both to the elderly themselves and through their children, friends, relatives, social workers, but persuasion is not easy, especially in the group of 65 years or more.

These people are reluctant to talk about AstraZeneca at all, but it is difficult to persuade them to choose other vaccines.

When asked how the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health criticize the municipalities’ decisions to vaccinate not only people from priority age groups, V. Bendaravičius is open:

“Try to invite those people and join. I think that after all, so are the people who move, drive, mostly and carry the virus, not those who are locked up at home. We need to vaccinate everyone in a row and there will only be benefits in small municipalities ”.

Alytus – among the leaders

The situation in Alytus is completely different.

Here, the proportion of the population with immunity is as close as 40 percent, vaccines are fast, and the municipality would like more vaccines.

Mayor Nerijus Cesiulis states that the situation in Alytus is not bad, mainly due to the fact that the investigation was very active; at the same time, the tests were carried out mainly in Lithuania.

There were really a lot of infections then, but according to the mayor, “when you look, you find it.” Numerous asymptomatic cases have been identified, preventing the spread, outbreaks.

“We have managed to communicate a lot with the population, especially with the older generation, 65 years or older, to say that the virus is there. That communication has paid off. We try to be an example for all of Lithuania, that we vaccinate well, that We know how to invite people, find ways to attract them to vaccination centers, you know, you invite one, the second, the third, and the others come and they don’t invite, because the neighbors were vaccinated.

We have managed to communicate a lot with the population, especially with the older generation, 65 years or older, to say that the virus is there.

We had very good flows of people, vaccines were never ruled out. If we saw that we had a dozen or a dozen shots left that day, we vaccinated other priority groups, firefighters, police officers, and everyone else in line. We had a list ready all the time, ”said N. Cesiulis, listening to the team organizing the vaccination.

The experience gained during the tire fire also helped communication, as the mayor of Alytus says.

Don’t you need to throw away the vaccines?

N. Cesiulis said that I. Šimonytė and A. Dulkis criticized municipalities that vaccinate not only the indicated age groups or other priority groups very badly.

According to Alytus, there were no situations to offer vaccinations to residents under 45+, when they had not yet received their vaccinations over the age of 65 or were in other priority groups.

“But those municipalities that did not attract people or people did not come, or people have a different opinion, more of them are against vaccines, they could have discarded the remaining vaccines. Would it be better for the state then? We cannot waste those things.

Blind adherence to the rules is the best example of bureaucracy where you don’t listen to anything, just follow the rules, and it’s better to throw away vaccines than you have to give them to someone who really needs them.

I think those municipalities behaved well if they did not do so by shutting down the vaccine in the morning. If at the end of the workday, when you see that those people are not coming and you need to use vaccines, then I really don’t see anything wrong.

Blind adherence to the rules is the best example of bureaucracy where you don’t listen to anything, just follow the rules, and it’s better to throw away vaccines than you have to give them to someone who really needs them. I think the attitude of the mayors of those municipalities is correct. We didn’t do that because we have queues where people wait according to priorities, “said N. Cesiulis.

More than 55 people are currently vaccinated at Alytus. If more vaccines were available and everyone who wanted could get vaccinated, N. Cesiulis says he was sure there would be enough.

Large companies are said to be constantly interested in such an opportunity.

Vaccination is not done in Alytus on weekends, it is expected to use the available amount of vaccines during weekdays, so, as the mayor says, “Already on Friday morning, the residents of Alytus look at the sky and they think of nature. “

Just over 10 percent were vaccinated this week. Alytus: There are 50 thousand in the city. population, 5.6 thousand were received. vaccines.