On Friday, Lithuania's Health Minister Arūnas Dulkys said that mistrust in the AstraZeneca vaccine is partly to blame for the country's failure to vaccinate the elderly.
“We had expectations to vaccinate the critical mass or at least 70 percent [of people aged 70 and above] in March,“ Health Minister Arūnas Dulkys told reporters on Friday. “We have failed to achieve that goal.“
According to the minister, part of the blames rests on the “AstraZeneca’s reputational crisis”.
Lithuania and several other European countries suspended the use of the AstraZeneca jab over fears that it may cause blood clots. However, the country resumed using the vaccine several days later after the European Medicines Agency said it was safe.
To bolster the public’s trust in the vaccine, Lithuania’s president, ministers, and MPs have received the AstraZeneca jab.
Read more: Lithuanian president, PM get AstraZeneca shot to bolster trust in vaccine
“We hope that older adults will nonetheless be more inclined to receive a vaccine shot in the future,” Dulkys said.
The government expected to administer at least one shot of the coronavirus vaccine to adults aged 70 and above in March, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said in late February.
However, she admitted on Friday that the authorities had failed “to buy time” and therefore had to tighten the lockdown restrictions.
Earlier on Friday, the Lithuanian government decided to reinstate restrictions on non-essential travel between municipalities that would remain in place until April 6 and has extended the lockdown until April 30.
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