Vaccination against COVID-19 was launched in Slovakia last weekend with the first jab given to infectious disease expert Vladimír Krčméry. "Experts estimate that the vaccination of the general population could begin at the end of the first quarter of next year," said the Health Ministry's spokesperson, Zuzana Eliášová. This means that vaccination could be available to all as early as March.
The vaccination in Slovakia should be divided into four waves. The first one includes health professionals, medical students, employees of social services homes, armed and police forces and critical infrastructure workers. In the second wave, it will be patients over 65 years of age and the chronically ill, clients of social services homes, immobile, oncological, dialysis or transplant patients. The second wave of vaccination will also include patients with biological treatment, autoimmune disease, diabetes mellitus, serious neurological diseases, cardiovascular or serious psychiatric diseases. The third wave of vaccination concerns specific communities at high risk of spreading the disease. This will include teachers, marginalized Roma communities, the homeless and asylum seekers. The remaining wave over the age of 18 will be vaccinated in the fourth wave.
