Is the end of the COVID-19 pandemic possible in five months’ time?
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According to the announcement, by the end of August, every willing Polish citizen is to receive the vaccination for COVID-19. In the second half of April, the vaccine for COVID-19 of the fourth company – Johnson & Johnson (J&J) – will come to Poland. This is to greatly facilitate the implementation of the National Vaccination Programme. In addition, the government is including more professional groups in the performance of vaccinations.
National vaccination programme for COVID-19 accelerates
The government announces an increase in the number of vaccination points, as well as the staff who qualify for vaccinations and the vaccination staff themselves. The qualification process will also be streamlined. The implementation of this plan is expected to allow 20 million Poles to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of the second quarter of 2020. By the end of August, such a vaccination is to be administered to every willing person in Poland.
According to official information, under the #National Vaccination Programme, more than 6 million vaccinations for COVID-19 were performed in the first quarter of 2021, including: 3,997,988 people were vaccinated with the first dose, and 2,002,414 people with two doses. A total of 7,762,460 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been delivered to Poland, with a total of 6,671,660 doses of COVID-19 vaccine delivered to vaccination centres (as at the morning of 1 April). Vaccination in our country is currently being carried out using products developed by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca. Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccines are also expected to arrive in Poland in the second half of April.
More vaccines = more vaccination
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) announced on 11 March that its single-dose COVID-19 vaccine has received conditional marketing authorisation from the European Commission. Transportation of the vaccine to EU countries is expected to begin on 19 April. Poland has contracted over 16 million doses of the vaccine in total, and we are expected to receive 4.5 million doses by the end of the second quarter (according to ISB Zdrowie). Importantly, the product developed by J&J only needs to be administered once, and in terms of storage conditions, it can be stored at 2-8 degrees C for three months. Following clinical trials of the J&J vaccine, the company claims that after 14 days of administration it boasts 67% efficacy in preventing mild COVID-19, 85% for severe COVID-19 and 100% protection against hospitalisation and death.
It is worth noting that other companies are still working to develop a gold-standard agent for COVID-19. In mid-March, Medicago and GSK announced the start of a Phase 3 trial of an adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Up to 30,000 volunteers from 10 countries will be enrolled in the study of a new COVID-19 vaccine. The plant-based vaccine candidate received Fast Track designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on 17 February 2021.
