Designation of O2 Arena as Vaccination Center Postponed

The plan to open the O2 Arena for the purpose of vaccination based in Prague has been reportedly postponed.

The Central Military Hospital was already preparing the venue until the decision was made to annul the process, despite PM Babis’ claims of getting the venue into operation on the 11^th of April.

There has been speculation that perhaps the opening of the venue could continue in May, but no one can reportedly confirm this as they simply do not know, according to Defense Ministry spokesman Jan Pejšek.

Moreover, according to the officials, one of the main reasons for this postponement is that the Czech state does not have enough shots to vaccine 10,000 people daily.

On the other hand, Prague Municipality initiated their own move by establishing their own vaccination site in the Congress Centre. Supposedly, it should be in operation by Tuesday, April 6.

“What we get, we inoculate. At the beginning of the week we inoculated 93 % of the delivered shots,” says Nikola Birklenová from the Office of the Governor of the Moravian-Silesian Region.

The number of vaccinated individuals fluctuates daily. About 1,000 vaccines can be released on weekends, usually between 3-5.5 thousand on weekdays.

The large-capacity centre in Ostrava is also operating at a slow pace due to the lack of vaccines. Although Prime Minister Babiš announced that the state would increase the capacity of the center, there are already fewer vaccines available than space and staff can allow administering.

An estimate of about 40% of people over 70 years old, and 65 % of people over 80 years old, have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccination to date.

However, the lockdown still continues, and the government will have to continuously maintain this fragile situation.