Prague will start operating its large vaccination center next week

by   CIJ News iDesk III
2021-03-16   10:06
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Prague plans to start test operation of a large-capacity vaccination center at the Congress Center next week. Councilor Milena Johnová (Prague Sobě) told reporters after the city council meeting that the center should operate with a capacity of 200 vaccinated a day for the first week. Then it should increase to 1000 people per day. The center should use Pfizer / BioNTech vaccines, because according to Mayor Zdeněk Hřib (Pirates), a large number of them lie fallow in the metropolis. These vaccines are distributed by the state.

According to Johnová, the approval of the council will be needed to start the operation of the center, because it is to be in charge of the city organization Metropolitan Medical Service and the deputies must vote to change its charter. They should decide on Thursday, in case of approval, the center should start from Monday. According to Johnová, the city will give CZK 11.3 million for the operation of the center in the first half of the year.

In the first week, the trial operation should check the functioning and solution of various situations that may occur during vaccination. So far, therefore, the medics in the center will vaccinate only 200 people a day. "This is the minimum operating capacity. We know that without any great effort we can expand the capacity to 1000 per day," the councilor said.

The municipality plans to use the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine for vaccination at the center, but it is distributed by the state in the metropolis and the city management and the Prague vaccination coordinator do not decide on it. Today, Mayor Hřib again criticized the state for the fact that, according to his information, there are now 33,528 doses of this vaccine in Prague warehouses, even though it is the day before the delivery. According to him, the number of unused benefits has doubled compared to last Monday.

For this reason, Prague should use the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine in its vaccination center, said Hřib. "In my opinion, it is not necessary to convene summits of prime ministers with the European Commission here, it would be good to focus first on vaccinating the vaccines we have in Prague," said Hibib in connection with the statement of some European prime ministers including vaccines are not distributed fairly in the EU.

Hřib added that the number of vaccinated daily in Prague has been stagnant since January. "The problem is that the state rate of vaccination in Prague remains the same, while in regions where they manage vaccination themselves, it is growing," the mayor wrote in today's letter to the prime minister. In it, he called on Babiš to ensure that the unused vaccine in Prague was vaccinated quickly or distributed to other regions.

There are nine state vaccination centers in Prague and a larger number of smaller vaccination centers. Two of them are operated by the municipality, namely in the Municipal Polyclinic in Spálená Street and in the Municipal Hospital for Aftercare in Vysočany. Moderna vaccine is used for vaccinations in smaller places, and AstraZeneca vaccines are intended exclusively for general practitioners in the metropolis.

A vaccination site can be established in any medical facility, it is necessary to register it with the municipality. The state plans to launch a large vaccination center in the O2 universum hall, according to an earlier statement by the prime minister, to start operating on April 11.