A mobile vaccination centre, housed in an ordinary public transit bus, will be making rounds in Lithuania's second city Kaunas, offering people coronavirus vaccine shots without registration. On Tuesday, it is parked outside a sports arena ahead of an important basketball game.
Every day, the bus will be parked in a different place, usually one with intense pedestrian traffic, according to Justinas Dzidzevičius, head of Kaunas City Polyclinic (Kalniečiai Department) who is in charge of vaccination in the city.
On Tuesday, the vaccination bus is offering vaccine shots outside Žalgiris Arena, which is hosting FIBA Olympic qualifying games.
Later it will be parked outside popular shopping malls and even near city beaches, Dzidzevičius said, adding that the city authorities would publish the schedule shortly.
People willing to get vaccinated do not need to register, only show up with an ID. After the shot, they will be registered for the second jab automatically.
“We seek maximum mobility, we plan to go to places of mass gatherings, but also to business companies, big organisations with many people to vaccinate,” said Paulius Keras, the head of the Operations Centre for Extreme Situations at Kaunas Municipality.
He says that vaccination pace is slowing down and at the moment more people are getting revaccinated than taking the first shot. “This is why we are looking for ways to get closer to people,” Keras said.
Currently, 44 percent of the Lithuanian population have been vaccinated at least once. In Kaunas, the share is 48.4 percent.
In Kaunas, around 3,000-4,000 people are vaccinated daily, but only under 500 come for the first vaccine shot.
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