“From now on, new batches of Moderna’s vaccine will be delivered each week in January and February,” the ministry said in a press release.
The batch was delivered by van from Belgium at 8 a.m. Before noon, it was transported to the warehouses of the Health Emergency Situations Center for storage at the temperature of −20°C.
“The vaccine will be transported from the warehouses of the Health Emergency Situations Center to Kaunas City Polyclinic. The doses will be transported at the temperature of 2–8°C using special equipment that will ensure stable temperature and continuous temperature tracking,” the ministry said.
Moderna’s vaccine doses will have to be used up within a period of 28 days.
The US pharmaceutical company Moderna is the second manufacturer to deliver a coronavirus vaccine to Lithuania.
The Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine – the first vaccine authorized for use in the European Union – has been delivered to Lithuania in batches since late December. The vaccine is administered to medical workers, other hospital staff, volunteers, and serious patients. Starting from Tuesday, shots are also given to patients and personnel at care homes.
Slightly more than 66,000 doses of the two vaccines have already been delivered to the country.
Nearly 25,000 people have already received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine in Lithuania, according to the data from Statistics Lithuania.
Both the Moderna and the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines require two shots: a priming dose, followed by a booster shot. The interval between Moderna doses is 28 days; for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, it is 21 days.