Poland extends list of professions entitled to administer Covid vaccine

Nurses, midwives, paramedics, laboratory diagnosticians and physiotherapists are among the professions that will be entitled to administer Covid-19 vaccinations, Poland's health minister said on Friday.

Adam Niedzielski told a press conference that "The pandemic is still a real threat and the fact that we are seeing small drops (in the number of infections) is not yet a signal that allows us to think that the worst is behind us."

The health minister added that vaccinations and an acceleration of the national vaccination programme are the only possibility to fight the pandemic with available means.

One of such measure was extending the group of professions entitled to administer vaccination. To date, only doctors were allowed to do so.

"We have divided the group into three subs-groups: the first is doctors, dentists, surgeons and to that group we have added nurses, midwives and paramedics. Representatives of these professions will not require further training to become qualified," Niedzielski explained.

The second sub-group is laboratory diagnosticians, pharmacists and physiotherapists, and this group will have to be trained.

The third sub-group is year five and six medical students and third-year first-degree nursing students, and they will have to be supervised be a doctor or other persons from the first sub-group.