Health minister: Chaos does not vaccinate almost 630,000 people
Minister of Health and Labor Tanel Kiik (Center) denied the organization of coronavirus vaccination is chaotic as more than 600,000 people have been vaccinated so far.
Speaking about the issue on ETV's current affairs show "Ringvaade" on Thursday, he said some changes will be made in the coming months as there will be a new undersecretary at the ministry and a new vaccination workgroup manager.
"A great deal of work has certainly been done over the last year and a half and more broadly, there are things that could have been done better. This can be admitted in retrospect, I think, by everyone," he said.
Speaking about how much responsibility he holds for low vaccination rates, he said: "It is a question of attitude. I also do not quite agree with this view that we see in the media that vaccination is in chaos, and so on. Nor will chaos vaccinate nearly 630,000 people and administer 1.1 million vaccinations. This has still been done by good, dedicated health workers, doctors, nurses, midwives and has been coordinated by the Ministry of Social Affairs with its various government agencies."
Kiik said that although he had expected a faster pace of vaccination, he considered it satisfactory. He said currently 20,000 first doses and 20,000 second vaccine doses are administered every week and the aim is to increase this number in August.
"But the active involvement of the residents themselves is also very important here," he added.
Earlier this week, Auditor General Janar Holm wrote to the government that there is no up-to-date vaccination plan, the targets set in previous vaccination plans are not clear and measurable, and the organization of vaccination has been too rigid.
He said there were no specific goals and no plans about how to reach those targets were in place.
A new vaccination action plan was published by the Ministry of Social Affairs on Thursday.
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Editor: Helen Wright