Czech Republic to establish 30 vaccination centers across the country

A total of 30 centers for COVID-19 vaccination will be established in the Czech Republic under the second version of the government vaccination strategy, according to Seznam Zprávy.

As of May, general practitioners will also be administering vaccines, the server reports.

The government sent the strategy to regional authorities and hospitals on December 23, the coordinator of the vaccination strategy, Zdeněk Blahuta, has confirmed.

Health personnel, firefighters, police officers, soldiers and people from risk groups such as the elderly or chronically ill will be vaccinated first.

It will be possible for the general public to be vaccinated as of March.

On Saturday, the first 9,750 does of the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech arrived to the Czech Republic. Vaccinations have begun as of Sunday morning.

By the end of the year, another 20,000 doses are expected to arrive. In total, the Czech Republic has secured about 12 million doses, enough to vaccinate around seven million people.

The Czech vaccination strategy contains three stages of vaccination, starting in January, Seznam Zprávy reports.

In the first stage, to take place through January and February, hundreds of thousands of doses from Pfizer will be sent to the Czech Republic. However, this vaccine requires storage at minus 70 degrees centigrade.

This is why the strategy calls for the establishment of 30 vaccination centers across the Czech Republic, under the supervision of regional vaccination coordinators.

However, the strategy given to regional authorities does not yet contain details on where exactly the centers will be set up.

In the second stage, through March and April, the government strategy takes into account that along with the vaccine from Pfizer, an additional vaccine from the firm Moderna will also be available.

About three million doses are to arrive to the country during this time. In this stage, the vaccination will mainly cover health personnel and members of at-risk groups, but a reservation system for the public will be launched, too.

The Health Ministry predicts that by the end of the second stage, a vaccine from AstraZeneca will arrive in the Czech Republic, too.

"This stage will finish with the arrival of the AstraZeneca vaccine that will be for the offices of general practitioners," the document says.

The third stage of vaccination will start the moment the vaccine from AstraZeneca comes to the Czech Republic, perhaps in May.

Vaccines from Johnson&Johnson, CureVac, and/or Sanofi may be available by that time, too.

In the third stage, the vaccination will be taken up by general practitioners.

"In this stage, doctors will become the primary actors for the successful vaccination of the Czech Republic's citizens," the strategy says.

In total, general practitioners should vaccinate up to 50,000 people a day during this stage.

The government approved the vaccination strategy on December 7. It did not include details on its implementation. The latest version was only completed a few days ago.