As the world is slowly starting the process of vaccinating its citizens, Poland joins the list. As COVID-19 vaccines have reached hospitals in the country, frontline workers are among the first ones to get the Pfizer jab. The first person to get vaccinated against COVID-19 was the head nurse of the Central Clinical Hospital of the Ministry of Interior and Administration in Warsaw.
"I'm proud to have been chosen," Alicja Jakubowska said before getting vaccinated. After getting the Pfizer-BioNTech jab on Sunday, she said "it didn't hurt" as she was beaming with joy.
Shortly after Jakubowska, other doctors and nurses also got vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. Director Prof. Waldemar Wierzba, paramedic Slawomir Butkiewicz and Dr Artur Zaczynski, the director of Temporary Hospital at the PGE National Stadium who gave the first vaccine shot to Jakubowska, also got vaccinated.
COVID-19 vaccines in Poland
Poland is receiving COVID-19 vaccines as a part of a coordinated rollout across the European Union. The first shipment of the vaccines arrived recently and the mass vaccination programme begins in January. For now, only health care workers are getting the vaccines while senior citizens, teachers, police officers and other first responders will be next in line when the mass vaccines roll out.
The Central Clinical Hospital in Warsaw received 75 vials of vaccines on Sunday, which will allow 375 people to be vaccinated. Each vial can be used to create doses for five people, PAP Iwona Soltys, spokesman for the Central Ministry of the Interior and Administration said.
