Polish pensioners will not be given the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, a senior official has said. Speaking at a press conference on Monday, head of Poland’s vaccination programme Michał Dworczyk told reporters the AstraZeneca jab would not be offered to old-age pensioners, citing questions over the vaccine’s effectiveness in older people.
Germany last week took a similar stance, with its vaccine committee advising against giving the AstraZeneca vaccine to over-65s. Other European countries are now following suit. Germany’s independent vaccine commission raised doubts over the vaccine, saying there was insufficient data to effectively judge the drug’s efficacy in over-65s.
No concerns were raised over the vaccine’s safety, however, and the European Medicines Agency has approved the jab for use across the EU.
The news comes as government figures show nearly 1.2 million doses of vaccine have now been administered in Poland. A fresh shipment of around 320 000 more doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine also arrived yesterday at Warsaw’s Chopin Airport.
Poland’s Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has said the government is considering plans to further reopen the economy
Speaking during a visit to a medical facility in Zabrze, southern Poland, Mr Morawiecki said the lower numbers of patients in hospital and on ventilators was a good sign and raised the prospect of further lifting restrictions.
Shops, museums, and culture centres are now open again after some measures were lifted yesterday, but gyms, restaurants, and hotels are just some of the businesses still under strict shut-down rules.
On Monday, Poland reported 2 503 new cases of the virus and 42 additional deaths.
The Polish Armed Forces have concluded their largest staff exercise since the fall of communism, testing military leaders’ readiness to defend the country in case of war
The Winter-20 simulation exercise saw commanders face an invasion from the east. The exercise also integrated some of the military’s most futuristic tech, including the F-35 stealth jet and the Patriot missile system, both of which are set to join the Polish military’s arsenal in the next 5 years.
Speaking at a press conference last week, Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak said the exercise had shown the new technologies had significantly increased military capabilities. The minister did not reveal how successful the exercise had been, but some Polish media outlets have reported that the simulation showed weaknesses in Polish defences, with onet.pl claiming the virtual enemy had reached Warsaw in as little as five days.
However, the exercise did not include Poland’s NATO allies, a key part of Polish defence planning.
Gdansk’s famous carillon music has been added to a national list of items of intangible cultural heritage
The city is home to not one but three sets of carillon bells. The largest is in St. Catherine’s Church with 50 bells; the Main-town Hall, known for its hourly tunes 37 bells; the final set is housed in a mobile bell-carrier and frequently travels around the city and elsewhere bringing the beautiful Gdansk tradition of musical bells to just about anywhere with a road.
Also added to the list were traditional embroidery in the Urzecze region, and the annual Kuyavian practice of „Walking with the Goat” – an annual lent tradition in which people dress up in costume, usually a bear, horse, stork, and, of course, a goat, and go door-to-door collecting donations for charity and wishing folks well.
Weather
Remaining cloudy as we go into the afternoon with temperatures around -2C, 28F. Snow showers easing off, but a chance for some more flurries later this evening and overnight.
Tomorrow looking largely the same with snow expected in the afternoon.
Thomas Holdstock/mw
