Vaccine shortage is currently the greatest challenge - PM Karins

RIGA - The shortage of Covid-19 vaccine doses is currently the greatest challenge, because with family physicians involved in the immunization effort, there are finally much more vaccination points in Latvia, Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins (New Unity) said following the weekly coalition meeting. 

Asked to comment on yesterday's low vaccination pace, the prime minister said that the vaccine doses in store are currently being used up, adding the vaccine doses that were supposed to arrive in Latvia last weekend were not delivered.

"More vaccine doses were scheduled to arrive last weekend, but they were not delivered. The shortage of vaccine doses is the greatest challenge," the prime minister said, adding that finally, there are much more vaccination points in Latvia. 

Karins projected that this week, the number of vaccinations will grow as the next batch of vaccine doses is delivered. 

"At the moment, we are reliant on vaccine deliveries, not our domestic activity. It is far from perfect, but we have managed to improve the vaccination rate significantly," Karins said. 

As reported, just 70 people receive the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine last Sunday, while the second dose was administered to one person, according to the National Health Service data.

The vaccination against Covid-19 has declined during weekend. In comparison, the largest number of people vaccinated in a day was 4,000 people.

On Sunday, vaccines were administered to senior citizens, medics, one social care center employee. The second dose was administered to a medic.

The Vaccination Bureau reported that in total, 15,984 people were vaccinated last week, which is 2,283 people on average a day.

So far, the first dose of vaccine has been administered to 45,049 people in Latvia, while 17,016 people have received both doses of the vaccine. In Latvia there were 1.894 million residents on January 1, 2021, according to the Central statistical bureau, so 2.4 percent of residents have received the first vaccine dose, and 0.9 percent have received both doses.