The public's interest in vaccination started dropping after a short increase in the first half of November. (source: TASR)
Nearly 8,000 people were interested in getting their first Covid vaccine shot at the beginning of last week. It was a record compared with the previous weeks, as seen by the number of those who registered for the vaccine via an online waiting room.
The demand for vaccination continued rising from November 16, when PM Eduard Heger (OĽaNO) announced stricter measures for people not vaccinated against Covid, calling it a “lockdown for the unvaccinated,” even though no curfew was in place at the time.
However, this changed in less than a week. The number of registrations for the first vaccine shot plummeted on Tuesday, November 23, and did not cross 2,400 until the end of the week. It happened one day after Health Minister Vladimír Lengvarský (OĽaNO nominee) announced that the measures were insufficient and that he would propose a curfew affecting both unvaccinated and vaccinated people.
At the time, two coalition parties, OĽaNO and Sme Rodina, supported the proposal.
The available data does not clearly show for now that the drop in the interest for vaccination was caused by the nationwide lockdown. The time that passed is too short, and the drop may only be temporary.
