Nearly 1 mln people may be left without vaccine in Poland

According to the announcements of the head of the Prime Minister's office and the government plenipotentiary for vaccination against COVID-19, Michał Dworczyk, free vaccinations will be available to people without Polish citizenship, including Ukrainians. A foreigner, however, must be legally resident in Poland and have a regulated stay, e.g. having a temporary or permanent residence card.

"However, it is worth remembering that for many years in some voivodeships, even 12 months have to wait for obtaining these documents, which excludes these people from the vaccination process. In addition, a large group of employees from Ukraine resides in Poland on the basis of the so-called simplified procedure," Krzysztof Inglot, President of the Board of Personnel Service said.

 According to the current regulations, these people will not be vaccinated.

"And yet they are employees who work hand in hand with Poles and the risk of coronavirus infection affects them to the same extent, hence, from the safety point of view, vaccinations for such people should be available and free. It is also in our interest to ensure as much as possible. people staying on the Vistula River were vaccinated," the President of Personnel Service noted.

"The most optimal solution seems to be the solution in which all foreigners who legally reside in Poland and are reported to the Social Insurance Institution, receive a free vaccine. And there are a lot of such people. The number of foreigners insured with ZUS at the end of November 2020 amounted to 738 Most of these people, over 547 thousand, are citizens of Ukraine, which means that nearly 1 million people can stay in our country without a vaccine," Krzysztof Inglot warned.

(WBJ)