Lithuania has enough vaccines to speed up vaccinations – presidential aide

  • 2021-02-18
  • BNS/TBT Staff

VILNIUS – Lithuania has enough COVID-19 vaccines to accelerate the immunization program, a presidential advisor said on Thursday. 

"We received around 70,000 (doses of) vaccines last week, which would allow increasing the pace of vaccinations," Simonas Krepsta, President Gitanas Nauseda's chief economic and social policy advisor, told LRT Radio.  

If the pace is not accelerated, vaccines may start to accumulate in warehouses, according to the advisor.    

"If the vaccination rate remains the same as this week or last week, there's definitely such a risk," he said. 

Growing vaccine deliveries make it increasingly possible to achieve President Gitanas Nauseda's target of vaccinating 70 percent of the Lithuanian population against COVID-19 by mid-summer, according to Krepsta.  

"On February 16, Johnson & Johnson submitted its vaccine to the European Medicines Agency for authorization. It would make it the fourth vaccine (approved for use in the EU), meaning an additional supply in the second quarter of this year," he said. 

As of Thursday morning, 106,894 people in Lithuania have received their first coronavirus vaccine shots and 58, 988 have been given the second jab. 

Lithuania has received a total of 215,805 vaccine doses and has used 157,903 of them so far.