Employers call on govt to release precise COVID vaccination plan

Representatives of employers have called on the Czech government to release detailed vaccination plan saying also when firms can start vaccinating their employees against the new coronavirus, Confederation of Industry head Jaroslav Hanak said after a Tripartite Council meeting.

The Tripartite Council comprises representatives of the employers, employees and the government. Many firms are interested in the vaccination against COVID-19 and wants to take part in it, Hanak said. He said the government should say exactly which week the vaccination of the individual age groups will begin.

The vaccination against COVID-19 was launched in the Czech Republic on December 27. So far mainly hospital workers, seniors over 80 and clients of retirement homes have been inoculated. The government approved the vaccination strategy on January 13 and about 838,000 people from the first priority group should be vaccinated in Czechia in January and February.

The second priority group includes some 3.7 million people - those aged over 65, other health workers, the chronically ill, teachers, police officers and firefighters. Their vaccination should last from February until June.The vaccination of the rest of the people should begin in May and continue also next year. Czechia has 10.7 million inhabitants.

Health Minister Jan Blatny (for ANO) said earlier that the vaccination of the first priority group will take longer and probably end at the end of March. He said the vaccine deliveries would be temporarily about 20 percent lower than planned, but in the second quarter of the year the deliveries should be higher than planned.

In the second quarter, Czechia was originally to get 2.7 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, 829,800 doses of the Moderna vaccine and about 1.8 million doses of the Astra Zeneca vaccine.

Blatny recently said firms might start vaccinating their employees in late spring. The Confederation of Industry told CTK then that it agreed with Blatny that firms would start participating in the vaccination in May.

Source: ČTK