First doses of AstraZeneca vaccine arrive in the Czech Republic

Nearly 20,000 doses of the newly-approved AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in the Czech Republic on Saturday morning.

ČTK

Written by ČTK Published on 06.02.2021 09:45:00 (updated on 06.02.2021) Reading time: 1 minute

The first delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca arrived at the Avenier dispatching center in Říčany near Prague this morning.

Distribution of the 19,200 doses to vaccination centers across the Czech Republic will begin on Monday. The first deliveries of the vaccine will be handled by Agel.

Unlike the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and the Moderna vaccine that are already being used in the Czech Republic, the AstraZeneca vaccine does not have to be transported and stored in special refrigerators at extremely low temperatures.

The Czech Republic has ordered three million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and should receive 130,000 of them this month, Czech vaccination coordinator Kateřina Baťhová said earlier this week.

Jarmila Dolečková, AstraZeneca's director of healthcare for the Czech Republic, told Mladá fronta Dnes that the firm would deliver over 170,000 doses of the vaccine. Further supplies are expected on February 10, 17 and 28, she said.

The vaccination priority groups are currently medical workers, clients in senior care homes, and all seniors over 80 in the Czech Republic.

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