Upset over the slow vaccine rollout in the Czech Republic, members of a sports organization collected money, hired doctors and nurses and opened their own vaccination center. The center can deliver about 700 Kovid-19 vaccines a day under the National Health Insurance System, in a gym in the small town southwest of Prague.
“It grew out of complaints about the situation because the Czech state was not able to adequately react to the entire epidemic, including its immunization,” said Jiri Gieseler, the mastermind behind the project.
Giesler is the deputy head of the local branch of Sokol, a sports organization established in 1862 to organize a large-scale gymnastics show in Prague.
It provided gyms and technical support.
With the highest global ranking for per capita Kovid-19 deaths and infections, the Czech Republic has reported more than 1.5 million cases and more than 26,000 Kovid-related deaths.
An EU member of 10.7 million has given jabs to more than 1,500,000 people, also lagging behind their own targets due to slowing of mediation by the European Union.
The Dobrichovice Center is not connected to any health facility, but it depends on the vaccine delivery by the state.
It had to go on stand-by last week when supplies dried up.
The center is officially run by local dentist Martin Rusak.
“I’m at work in the afternoon shift so I can stay here in the morning,” he said.
– ‘here for the whole country’ –
The center relies on volunteers, including pensioners, mothers on maternity leave, students, jobbers or people who cannot work because their workplaces are closed.
“We ran advertisements in local papers and received about 300–350 answers from 30–40 doctors, about 50 nurses and the rest were administrative staff,” Geissler told AFP.
Roussak said he expected the center to provide money at some point for payments from health insurers.
“We want to reimburse the people who work here when they have given us time,” Rusk told AFP.
“If there is any money left, we are determined to spend it on donations in the city or region.”
Arriving from a nearby city, pensioner Ruzena Filipova rested under a blacked-out scoreboard after being vaccinated, holding a lollipop she was given to be a good patient.
“I thought I’d spend half a day here and it’s happening really fast, it’s well organized,” she said.
Promoted
Giesler said the center has already served patients from more remote locations.
He said, “We are a people of Brno, tomorrow we will be a woman from Havirov (an eastern city). We are here for the whole country.”
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