It has been exactly one year since the vaccination marathon started in the Czech Republic, and it has not yet ended. On Sunday, December 27, 2020, war veteran Emílie Řepíková and the then Prime Minister, Andrej Babiš (ANO), were the first to receive the vaccine against COVID-19 in front of the cameras. There was no choice then. Both received the only available preparation from Pfizer/BioNTech at the time. Now everything is different.
There are four vaccines to choose from, and a fifth vaccine from the American company Novavax will be available at the beginning of next year. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was the most frequently received (83 percent). This is followed by a vaccine from Moderna (nine percent), then AstraZeneca (six percent), which is no longer used in the Czech Republic, and a single-dose preparation from Johnson & Johnson (three percent).
Most of these were approved for those aged 18 or 16. Adolescents aged 12 to 15 years were vaccinated in early July. Then, in late November this year, the EMA approved the first vaccine for even the youngest children aged 5 to 11. The vaccination coverage of the population is in line with how vaccination has been made available.
More than 90 percent of people over 70 years of age are vaccinated. The vaccination rate declines with age. Among those in their forties and fifties, it is 75 percent, and in the 16-to-29 age group, it is 64 percent. Among children aged 12 to 15, less than half.
Approximately 6.7 million people, or 63 percent of the total population, have already received their first dose.