Illustrative stock photo (source: TASR)
Although some vaccination centres have empty slots for vaccination every day, the hospitals that operate them often cannot vaccinate the stand-ins or people from groups not officially approved by the Health Ministry.
The ministry has officially launched the vaccination of people older than 75 years, but there are many unused dates and doses left, the Sme daily reported.
“Legislation doesn’t allow the filling of vacancies with stand-ins from other categories,” Katarína Kapustová, spokesperson of the University Hospital in Martin, told Sme.
More than 108,000 people were vaccinated in Slovakia by January 27, and there are currently 37 vaccination centres.
Although people older than 65 have been able to register as stand-ins since January 19, hospitals usually call them in if some unused doses remain at day's end due to some people from the lists not showing up. The numbers are not high, as hospitals say.
It is not easy to register as a stand-in. Slovakia lacks a unified system to create lists of stand-ins. This means that every vaccination centre follows its own rules, Sme reported.
