“From 6 December, vaccination with a formulation tailored to the XBB (Kraken) virus variant will be available for all patients wishing to be vaccinated against the coronavirus”, said the health ministry. According to the Ministry, more than a thousand cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections are detected daily in Poland, but the scale of the disease could be much larger.
The Ministry of Health says the new vaccine is a product from Novavax, rated as highly effective and safe. The vaccination will be available to all willing patients, and can be done at vaccination points – clinics, as well as pharmacies. The vaccination will be free of charge.
In a recent report, the Ministry of Health reported 1,300 detected cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
“The scale of the COVID-19 cases may be several times higher than the official statistics, taking into account the percentage of positive tests. In some provinces, it is as high as 75 %, which shows that the actual number of infections is much higher”, says microbiologist Professor Agnieszka Szuster-Ciesielska.
Asked about the reasons for this situation, the researcher pointed, among other things, to the lack of compulsory testing in clinics and hospitals. “From 1 April 2022, the rules for ordering and performing antigen tests have changed; they are no longer obligatory, and the referral of a patient for a free coronavirus test will be decided by a doctor, based on an assessment of the patient’s health status, including symptoms that may indicate COVID-19”, she said.
According to Prof. Szuster-Ciesielska, some of the tests for COVID-19 do not make it into the system because patients privately buy them themselves and perform them to find out what virus caused the infection.
“The result of a self-administered test will not be honoured by the doctor in the practice. The tests should be performed in the clinic by a qualified person who knows how to take the biological material properly from the nose, and the result should be sent straight to the doctor”, reminded the microbiologist.
Arkadiusz Słomczyński