Lithuania has enough Covid-19 vaccines to accelerate the immunisation programme, the president's adviser said on Thursday, adding that, under the current pace, shots may start piling up in warehouses.
“We received around 70,000 [doses of] vaccines last week, which would allow increasing the pace of vaccinations,” Simonas Krėpšta, the chief economic and social policy adviser to President Gitanas Nausėda, told LRT RADIO.
Unless the pace of vaccination is accelerated, vaccines may start piling up in warehouses, according to the adviser.
“If the vaccination rate remains the same as this week or last week, there's definitely such a risk,” he said.
Growing vaccine deliveries make it increasingly possible to achieve President Nausėda's target of vaccinating 70 percent of the population against Covid-19 by mid-summer, according to Krėpšta.
“On February 16, Johnson & Johnson submitted its vaccine to the European Medicines Agency for authorisation. It would make it the fourth vaccine [approved for use in the EU], meaning an additional supply in the second quarter of this year,” he said.
As of Thursday morning, 106,894 people in Lithuania have received their first coronavirus vaccine shots and 58,988 have been given the second jab.
Lithuania has received a total of 215,805 vaccine doses and has used 157,903 of them so far.
In vaccination centres, not warehouses
Responding to Krėpšta's statements, Health Minister Arūnas Dulkys said unused Covid-19 vaccines were distributed among vaccination centres and were not being warehoused.
“We now have 74 vaccination centers across Lithuania. They continue to be the road of 49,923 vaccines towards people,” the minister posted on Facebook on Thursday.
“Once the amount of vaccines increases proportionally, 129 vaccination centers will operate. And up to 10,000 people will be vaccinated a day. Municipalities, having assessed their capacity, plan to jointly vaccinate up to 30,000 people,” Dulkys said.
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