Poland likely to start vaccination of 'group one' in late Jan.

Poland expects to start vaccinating the second group of people in its national vaccination programme in the last week of January, the government’s commissioner for the country's vaccination strategy has said.

The second group, called “group one”, follows in the wake of the “zero group” that consisted of healthcare personnel and people who work in hospitals and nursing homes.

"We assume that the vaccination of the first group will start in the last week of January,” Michal Dworczyk told a Monday press conference. ”These are our assumptions, but we will see what the dynamics of the vaccination process of group zero will be - this is one of the variables that will have an impact on it."

Group one comprises of seniors over the age of 60, the uniformed services and teachers.

"We assume that immunisation referrals will be issued to the oldest people first," Dworczyk said.

He also said that Poland may inoculate some 2.9 million people against Covid-19 in the first quarter of the year as over 5.8 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine are expected to arrive by the end of March.

"Everything indicates that in the first three months of 2021, i.e. until the end of the first quarter, we can count on the delivery of vaccines from three manufacturers: Pfizer - 4.6 million doses, Moderna - 800,000 doses and CureVac, if it is registered, - 400,000. This gives us a total of about 5, 880,000 doses," Dworczyk said.

He also reiterated that on January 15 a helpline will be launched for all Poles to start signing up for the vaccination programme.