Govt adopts measures to boost vaccination
Ljubljana/Maribor/Koper - The government adopted a set of measures to scale up vaccination by making it more accessible and increase the country's immunisation rate at its correspondence session on Monday, including tasking the Health Ministry with immediately organising a large number of mobile vaccination units.
The government set some new rules for the implementation of the national vaccination strategy as the supply of Covid-19 vaccines in Slovenia outstrips demand and it is already possible to choose between different jabs.
The Health Ministry was also tasked with instructing vaccination centres to provide enough time slots for vaccination without a prior appointment to all those who are interested in getting a jab and with whichever vaccine they want.
The vaccinated persons should also be enabled to get a vaccination certificate in a simple manner and free of charge, the government said in a release last evening.
The ministry will also have to carry out additional activities to promote vaccination among healthcare staff.
In collaboration with employers, the Economy Ministry should identify sectors where workers should be vaccinated faster to make the sectors more resilient.
The Education Ministry will launch activities to promote vaccination of students and teachers to make for a smooth education process in the next school year.
Promotion of vaccination will also be carried out among care home residents and staff that have not yet been vaccinated.
All ministries have been tasked with first consulting the Health Ministry's coronavirus task force and then making a list of sectors where a higher immunisation rate could warrant lifting the restrictions which are in place to contain the spread of the virus.
All ministers and state secretaries will be obligated to speak favourably of vaccination in their public appearances.
Data from the Covid-19 tracker site shows Slovenia currently has about half a million unused doses of various vaccines, which is more than the number of those who have booked but are still waiting to get the jab.
Jelko Kacin, the national coordinator for vaccination logistics, told the STA on Monday another 120,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine arrived in Slovenia on Sunday with an additional 120,000 due in a week.