One-quarter of Czech residents over 80 have registered for COVID-19 vaccine

Czech residents over 80 booked out all currently-available times and dates for COVID-19 vaccination in about one hour yesterday. It is still possible to register via the online reservation system for those in this age group for a future date.

The registration system launched at 8:00 a.m. on Friday.

The Smart Quarantine project writes on Twitter that more than 44,000 people registered for vaccination in the first hour, and 2,000 of them reserved a date for their vaccination. In the first two minutes after the system launched, it was visited by 75,000 people.

A total of 109,500 senior citizens over 80 have registered in the system on the first day, which is about a quarter of the entire population of this age group in the Czech Republic. 8,791 of them have booked a reserved time slot, government IT commissioner Vladimír Dzurilla told CTK on Friday evening.

There are 441,000 people aged over 80 in the Czech Republic, who can now apply for registration.

Every week, the country should receive 70,000 vaccines of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine. By the end of January, 11,600 doses of the Moderna vaccine should also be delivered to the Czech Republic.

Health Minister Jan Blatný (for ANO) said people over 80 may register themselves at any time, and their vaccination will always be a priority.

"The system is set so that they will always be given preference. The vaccines that will arrive are first of all for them," Blatný said.

The Health Ministry pointed out on Thursday that not everybody who registered for vaccination on Friday will immediately receive a time and date.

People who did not receive a time and date for their vaccination were sent a PIN code which can be used to book a future available date. The Health Ministry recommends checking for new dates as more vaccines are received and vaccine centers open.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) said on Thursday that people can get vaccinated in 164 places across the country. Some vaccination centers have not yet offered any time slots for vaccination.

Up to additional 10,000 time slots will be made available every week if the expected vaccine doses from Pfizer and BioNTech continue to arrive to the Czech Republic, and the number of time slots will rise with more supplies, Blatný said.

Along with those over 80 who will get the vaccine preferentially, healthcare workers and staff and clients of senior homes and other social care facilities also have preference for vaccination. Those who have already been vaccinated will start receiving their second vaccine dose as of Sunday.