Lithuania will allocate 200,000 coronavirus vaccine doses to Eastern Partnership countries.
So far, 100,000 vaccine shots have been set aside for Ukraine, 11,000 doses for Moldova, and 15,000 doses for Georgia, according to a protocol decision adopted by the government on Friday.
The vaccines will be allocated to Eastern partners as humanitarian aid by October 1.
“We understand that these quantities are insufficient to save these countries from the situation they have found themselves in. However, we cannot just talk about solidarity. We should take the first step and show what real solidarity is. It’s not just words, it also implies actions,” Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said.
He confirmed later that Lithuania would send the AstraZeneca vaccines to the Eastern Partnership countries.
Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said during the cabinet’s meeting that the vaccines would probably be sent in “the third quarter” of the year.
If vaccine developers stick to current delivery schedules, Lithuania should receive more vaccines than it needs to vaccinate its entire population by the end of the third quarter, Deputy Health Minister Živilė Simonaitytė said.
“If everything goes in line with the best possible scenario, Lithuania may expect to get enough vaccines to vaccinate its nearly 3.5 million residents by the end of the third quarter,” Simonaitytė said.
She added that the government would have to adopt a separate decision on the allocation of vaccines to each particular country.
A total of 1,413,545 vaccine doses have already been delivered to Lithuania, some 144,000 of them are yet to be administered. Nearly one-third, or 30.2 percent, of the country’s population have received at least one vaccine shot.
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