To increase the vaccination coverage of Czechs against covid-19 disease, vaccination teams have gone or will soon go into the field in some regions. They target mainly remote villages and socially excluded localities where the authorities register little interest in vaccination or where people live without vaccination centers.
According to statistics, remote border, mountain, and small communities have low vaccination rates. Vaccination teams have traveled to Moravian-Silesian, Karlovy Vary, Ústí nad Labem, Pilsen, and South Bohemia regions.
In Moravia and Silesia, vaccination was offered to unregistered people in Vítkov in Opava, Osoblaga in Bruntál, and Jablunkov in Frýdek-Místek at the beginning of August, and over 500 people took advantage of it. Spokeswoman Nikola Birklenová said that the problem with lower vaccination rates in these areas is their geographical location or demographic composition.
In the Ústí nad Labem Region, mobile teams have been operating since the beginning of vaccination. First, they went to homes for the elderly and nursing homes. Since July, they have collected requests from municipalities to go to socially excluded localities or remote places. The medics have been to the excluded locality of Mojžíř in Ústí nad Labem, to the Chanov housing estate and other localities in Most and in Libočany and Čeradice in Žatecko, and they plan to visit Janov in Litvínov, Předlice in Ústí nad Labem, Boletice in Děčín and Trmice near Ústí nad Labem.
In southern Bohemia, mobile teams vaccinated a hundred people in the vicinity of Blatná in Strakonice during the week. The neighboring Pilsen region has been running two vaccination teams since mid-July. The area wants to expand its number to provide vaccination without registration to all interested people in each district.
A health team in the Karlovy Vary Region has also been going into the field since July. In addition to the larger towns where he has targeted the homeless, his targets are more remote places, such as Aš, Oloví, Stříbrná, and Rotava.
Two teams are scheduled to travel to villages far from vaccination centers next week in the Olomouc Region. One of them should focus on Jesenicko, and the other on the opposite part of the region. By the end of August, health workers in the Zlín Region will also go into the field.
The Hradec Králové Region is preparing for the possibility of mobile vaccination. According to spokesman Dan Lechmann, it should target mountainous and foothill areas, such as Vrchlabsko or Novopacko.
The Liberec Region wants to use a mobile team to vaccinate residents of socially excluded localities in the Ralsko area. It is now looking into possible interest, said vaccination coordinator Vladimír Richter (ODS). Vysočina is still considering the use of mobile teams.