“For the booster, we have agreed to buy vaccines for the next two years. The European Commission has started [negotiations] or has already signed a contract with three manufacturers. Consequently, we have provided vaccines for the future, the booster is being planned," the Prime Minister said.
He said that Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson are the manufacturers with whom contracts could be signed.
In relation to the booster, Latvia mainly follows the instructions of the European Medicines Agency. Kariņš said that the bigger challenge for the booster is to convince the hesitant part of society about the importance of vaccinations in overcoming the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We have 700,000 vaccines in the warehouse, but there is no demand,” said Kariņš.
Kariņš said that all means, including the lottery for promoting vaccination and the obligation to vaccinate in specific professions, are “good and justified if we can convince people to get vaccinated”.
“I am concerned about relatively slow vaccination rates. If we do not continue in this way, we face the threat that the trend that is currently down may be changing rapidly. We can be protected by vaccination, we need to focus on it."
The Prime Minister said that the number of very radical Covid-19 vaccination denials in Latvia is declining every month. He said: “The society is slowly changing its mind. If we allowed it to happen naturally, until Christmas and the New Year we could reach the target, but we don't have time, we have to get it done in a shorter time.”
