“We invite you to get vaccinated against the COVID-19 disease and the flu during one visit to a medical facility. It is convenient, fast and recommended by experts. Residents will be able to do that from October 5,” she said during a press conference in Vilnius.
According to the chancellor, both vaccines have already been brought to Lithuania, and they will soon reach medical institutions.
“We also have an adapted vaccine against the COVID disease, which is adapted to the strains of the currently circulating COVID disease,” asserted J. Grebenkovienė.
“The entire population will be able to get vaccinated with both vaccines during one visit, but I especially encourage people belonging to risk groups to get vaccinated. Vaccination will be free for them, that is, residents who are 65 years old and older, suffer from chronic diseases, residents of nursing and care facilities, pregnant women and employees of health care facilities,” she said.
According to Ginreta Megelinskienė, adviser of the Health Promotion Department of the Ministry of Health, unlike the flu vaccine, which is free only for residents belonging to the risk group, vaccinations against COVID-19 will be free for everyone.
Lithuania purchased 200 thousand flu vaccine doses, COVID-19 vaccine “Comirnaty XBB.1.5” – 115.2 thousand doses for adults and 4.8 thousand doses to vaccinate children aged 5-11 years.
“We currently have the original Comirnaty vaccines for children aged six months to four years, but a working group vote is underway to purchase the updated XBB.1.5 (adapted omicron strain – BNS) vaccine for this age group, as we have not yet been clear whether this updated vaccine will be approved for this age group”, said G. Megelinskienė.
Pauliaus Peleckis/BNS photo/Ginreta Megelinskienė
According to her, it is best for those who want to get vaccinated to contact the health care institution where they are registered.
One vaccination against COVID-19
According to G. Megelinskienė, all residents of Lithuania aged five years and older, regardless of whether they have previously been vaccinated against the COVID disease or not, the vaccine against the coronavirus is given no earlier than six months after the illness or the last vaccination.
She also said that these people, regardless of how many vaccinations against the coronavirus they have received so far, will be given one vaccine.
“Now, all persons aged five years and older, regardless of whether they were previously vaccinated or not, whether they got sick or not, are given one dose of the vaccine,” said G. Megelinskienė.
According to her, children between the ages of six months and five years will be vaccinated according to the previously valid scheme, which consists of three doses of the vaccine.
“For children six months to four years old, the recommended primary vaccination schedule consists of three doses of the vaccine. We currently have the original Comirnaty vaccine, the second dose is given 21 days after the first dose, and the third dose at least eight weeks after the second dose,” said the SAM spokeswoman.
In cases where a child, for example, received one dose and later fell ill with the aforementioned disease, he is considered to have been vaccinated according to the full schedule, “except for exceptional cases when more than one dose of the vaccine may be given by the doctor’s decision.”
Last season, according to G. Megelinskienė, about 200 thousand were used. state-reimbursed flu vaccines and approximately 50,000 coronavirus vaccines.
Less than a percent do not have immunity
Vilnius University Life Sciences Center professor Aurelija Žvirblienė, for her part, said that in Lithuania “the level of immunization in society is very high”.
This was shown by a seroepidemiological study conducted by Vilnius University and the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences in the spring.
“Of the 517 people who participated in the study, there were only five people who did not have antibodies and did not declare that they had been sick or vaccinated. This is less than one percent of people who have not been immunized against covid“said the professor.
Pauliaus Peleckis/BNS photo/Aurelija Žvirblienė
According to her, over 70 percent Humans have hybrid immunity that occurs both after an illness and after vaccination.
For her part, Ligita Jančorienė, head of the Center for Infectious Diseases of Santaras Clinics, said that “the COVID-19 season is gaining momentum little by little”.
“If we look at it from this morning, about a third of the inpatient beds in the Infectious Diseases Center of the Vilnius University Hospital are occupied only by those who are being treated for the COVID infection,” said Ligita Jančorienė, head of the center.
Pauliaus Peleckis/BNS photo/Ligita Jančorienė
Daiva Razmuvienė, the chief specialist of the Infectious Diseases Management Department of the National Public Health Center, pointed out that new cases of coronavirus do not differ in a more complex form, “there are no major hospitalizations or deaths”.
Pauliaus Peleckis/BNS photo/Daiva Razmuvienė
“The burden is still small, but it is not yet clear how the virus will behave further. It is still too early to assess what the season will be like in general,” said the epidemiologist.
The number of new cases of coronavirus in 14 days, according to Monday, 100 thousand. population reaches 131.1 cases, the seven-day positive diagnostic test rate is 22.3 percent.
COVID-19 reached its peak in early February 2022, when more than 14,000 cases were detected per day. infections with this disease. In total, about 1.19 million people have been infected with the coronavirus at least once in the country. people.
In Lithuania, 68.5% have received at least one dose of vaccination, as indicated in the statistics. population.
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