When will I receive my jab?

The Health Ministry has published the details of its vaccination strategy.

Illustrative stock photoIllustrative stock photo (Source: TASR)

Vaccination against COVID-19 started in Slovakia started in late December 2020. The first person received the jab on December 26.

When the Health Ministry originally presented in its vaccination strategy, it included four phases of the vaccination. Recently, it has published more details of its plan, extending the phases to 11 and specifying the age groups that will gradually receive the jab.

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Those who wish to be vaccinated will have to book the date via the Korona.gov.sk website. No concrete dates have been published yet, though.

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Currently, Slovakia uses two mRNA vaccines, produced by companies Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. People should receive two doses. Originally, people were expected to receive the second dose after 21 days. The ministry now extended it to 28 days.

More vaccines to come

Slovakia purchased more than four million new doses of vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna on January 18, PM Igor Matovič and Health Minister Marek Krajčí (both OĽaNO) told the press conference.

As a result, Slovakia has ordered enough vaccines for 85 percent of the adult population, according to Matovič.

Before January 18, the country had 2.4 million vaccines contracted from Pfizer/BioNTech. Their number should increase by almost 3.5 million thanks to the contract. At the same time, Slovakia previously ordered 960,000 vaccines from Moderna. The number will increase by another 600,000 vaccines due to the new deal.

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As a result, Slovakia will have at its disposal almost 7.5 million vaccines from both producers for about 3.7 million of people.

The vaccines will not arrive straight away. While the first batch by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, which has already been ordered, should be distributed in the first three quarters of 2021; the second batch from Pfizer/BioNTech is expected to arrive between the second and fourth quarter of the year, and the Moderna one only at the end of 2021.

Waiting for AstraZeneca

The AstraZeneca vaccine has not been approved by the EU. Krajčí said that it is expected to receive approval in the upcoming days. If so, the vaccine should be available in February.

Slovakia has ordered 3.6 million vaccines from this company.

Matovič also said that the adult population aged 18-45 may be vaccinated by the end of August, if vaccines deliveries are stable.

If the AstraZeneca vaccine is approved, people who should be vaccinated in the 11th phase of the vaccination strategy receive their first jabs in June.

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