WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland is considering making vaccination obligatory for those most at risk from COVID-19, such as health service workers, the health minister said on Tuesday, as the country seeks to counter resistance among those not yet inoculated.
The country of around 38 million people has fully vaccinated 12.7 million people, but authorities have warned of problems with convincing those not yet vaccinated to get a jab.
“Unfortunately we have the impression that we have reached a certain ceiling – it is hard to convince those who are unconvinced because all the arguments and other types of actions have already been taken,” Adam Niedzielski told Catholic radio station Radio Plus.
“We are talking about such scenarios as making vaccination obligatory for those most exposed to the serious consequence of COVID – we are talking here about senior citizens, but first of all doctors,” he said.
Niedzielski also said there was a possibility of a fourth wave of the pandemic in the second half of August, mirroring the increase in daily cases that has been seen in Britain.
“We have such a sequence in Europe which means that what happens in Britain happens here about two months later… in our case, there is a possibility of a fourth wave appearing in the second half of August,” he said.
(Reporting by Alan Charlish and Pawel Florkiewicz; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
