The commander of the Lithuanian Armed Forces is asking to change the vaccination procedure: to fully vaccinate only 3 percent. soldiers

“It is not possible for the army to work remotely. There is a very small proportion of soldiers working at headquarters. We need to vaccinate more than 20,000 people. Of these, only about 1,000 could perform their duties without contact.” 15 minutes said V. Rupšys.

Currently, 600 soldiers received both doses of the vaccine in the Lithuanian Armed Forces, mostly military doctors and soldiers participating in international missions. Another 1,600 were vaccinated with the first dose.

Vaccination of mandatory home affairs officials is much faster. According to the Ministry of the Interior, 46.7% have already been vaccinated with at least one dose. officials. Of the 6,998 vaccine recipients, 99 have already received both doses.

The first vaccination has already been received by 3,851 employees of the Police Department and 1,410 employees of the Fire and Rescue Service.

Proposes a change of order

According to the general, the army has problems with the procedure when it is necessary to register individually in municipalities or health institutions and wait for their turn individually.

According to the commander, the army could operate more efficiently if soldiers were vaccinated in military units according to the procedure established by the army.

“The peculiarity of our work is that we have to vaccinate the entire team. If there are 30 soldiers in the platoon, they must all be vaccinated at the same time. We cannot vaccinate five people and let the rest sit in the barracks due to all the restrictions, “said V. Rupšys.

The Lithuanian Armed Forces Commander draws attention to the arrival of people whose declared place of residence may be in another country of the country.

“In comparison, police officers tend to be residents of the municipalities where they carry out their duties. They can register individually through the municipalities and go to be vaccinated at the time that suits them.

About 700 soldiers serve in Grand Duchess Birutė’s Ulaan Battalion. Of these, only about 200 have declared their place of residence in Alytus. Others come from different parts of Lithuania. They should go to their family doctors, to their municipalities and get vaccinated there, ”said the army commander about the complicated process.

According to the general, the army proposes that the military units be vaccinated at the same time, and the army is also willing to organize the whole process.

“Soldiers must be vaccinated across municipalities as an indivisible unit. Or the other way, the easier one, would be if we gave ourselves the vaccines and did it at our discretion. The army could be considered as one more municipality ”, commented V. Rupšys.

It can be vaccinated by military doctors.

Last weekend, the Vilnius city municipality delivered more than 800 doses of Astra Zeneca’s Vaxzevria vaccines to the army.

No such attention has been received from other municipalities.

“Other municipalities have not yet told us about it. I hope that one day there will be solutions so that other municipalities can give us vaccines. However, according to the list, we are in priority number 20, perhaps our moment has not yet come ”, considered V. Rupšys.

The Lithuanian Armed Forces Commander emphasized that recruits performing mandatory initial military service must also be vaccinated at the same time, otherwise chaos would ensue.

He stressed that vaccinations in the military could be done by their military doctors.

“The army differs from other institutions in that we ourselves have medical capabilities. Our military doctors have permission to vaccinate. We are prepared for that, we only need vaccines,” said the general.

The minister also regrets

Minister of National Defense Arvydas Anušauskas 15 minutes He also said that he acknowledged that “the vaccination rate of the army is much slower than that of the police.”

He said he had proposed changes to the soldiers’ vaccination regimen, but this had not yet been approved.

“I myself had to offer a solution of this type a couple of times, but I did not get any agreement. Of course, over time, more vaccines are received and decisions are changed, but until now there is no such solution,” lamented A Anušauskas.

Priority: for contact soldiers

In some Lithuanian military crews, mass voluntary vaccination of personnel against coronavirus infection began last week. One of the first vaccinated soldiers in the Army and General Support Logistics Battalion of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytenis.

According to the priorities approved by the Commander of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, soldiers and soldiers who perform important tasks that require communication with other people are currently being vaccinated. Military doctors and mission personnel were vaccinated a little earlier.

According to the established procedure, the vaccination of people in the Lithuanian Armed Forces is organized by the Vaccination Operations Center established in the Logistics Board, and carried out by the Logistics Board Dr. J. Basanavičius doctors of the Military Medical Service in nine main crews of the Lithuanian Armed Forces: in Rukla, Panevėžys, Alytus, Marijampolė, Tauragė, Vilnius, Klaipėda, Kaunas and Šiauliai.