Vaccination

All the Lithuanian citizens may be vaccinated in Lithuania against Covid-19, regardless of their place or country of residence, as well as other persons, who:

• are entitled to personal health care services paid from the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund or from the State budget;
• citizens of the Member States of the European Union and the European Free Trade Association and their family members, who have come to live in Lithuania for the period exceeding 3 months in 6 months, and who have been granted the right to reside in Lithuania;
• foreign citizens and persons without citizenship, to whom the Lithuanian residence permit has been issued;
• persons, to whom the national visa has been issued;
• persons accredited and residing in Lithuania;
• other persons who have to be vaccinated by the Government’s resolution.

Vaccination services in Lithuania can be obtained by foreigners who are permanent residents of Lithuania and/or who are insured by compulsory health insurance in Lithuania (who work and pay compulsory health insurance premiums or for whom contributions are paid, as well as by persons who are insured with state budget funds).

Insured persons from other EU countries who have moved to the Republic of Lithuania (having declared their place of residence in the Republic of Lithuania in accordance with the procedure laid down in the Law on Declaration of the place of residence) and who are registered with Document S1 in the territorial sickness fund according to the place of residence in Lithuania are entitled to the same personal health care services as well as those insured in the Republic of Lithuania with compulsory health insurance (hereinafter referred to as PSD), including vaccination

Yes, all the Lithuanian citizens may be vaccinated in Lithuania, regardless of their country of residence.

Persons who do not have a car or who, for some reason, find it difficult to reach the place of vaccination themselves can be carried by relatives or neighbours. If the purpose of the trip is to be taken to/from the vaccination centre, the person from different households can be driven by car — this is not an infringement.

Yellow school buses can also be taken to the vaccination site. During the quarantine period, owners of public schools, municipalities or other schools that have yellow minivans can use them to transport other persons in free time when buses are not required for pupils.

In the municipalities of Vilnius, Vilnius distr., Kaunas, Klaipeda, Klaipėda distr., Panevėžys, Utena and Utena distr., Ukmergė and Ukmergė distr., Zarasai and Zarasai distr., all people with disabilities are transported to the vaccination centres for vaccination by "Socialinis taksi" (social taxi). People with disabilities can register on the website www.socialinistaksi.lt or by calling +37068744001.

Employees of large enterprises/organizations (with 100 or more employees) may be vaccinated if the priority groups vaccinated during the week and the list of persons wishing to vaccinate according to their row cannot be compiled or vaccinated in a given week and the following priority group in line will not use up all available doses of COVID-19 vaccine. It is recommended that municipalities give priority to those enterprises or organizations in whose field of activity most of the outbreaks of COVID-19 disease have been identified.

We invite you to contact your family doctor directly and inform you that you want to get vaccinated.

Contact a medical institution, for example by phone, and inform the institution that you will go for vaccination or not.

Each municipality ensures that residents are invited to vaccinate in a language they understand. Also, taking into account the people speaking other languages living in the municipality, all other relevant information related to vaccination and COVID-19 should be translated.

Keep a personal document on you while you are going to vaccinate. If you are arriving for a re-vaccination, you must also have a vaccination card issued to you during your first visit.

Directly contact the medical institution where you will be vaccinated and coordinate the new vaccination time.

Directly contact the medical institution where you will be vaccinated and coordinate the new vaccination time.

If you refuse to vaccinate and change your mind later, you will have the opportunity to get vaccinated during mass vaccination.

If you are unable to come to the vaccination centre because of mobility disability or health status, you may be vaccinated in the premises closer to your home (dispensary) or arrive for vaccination in your home.

With a limited amount of vaccine, not all medical institutions are supplied with them. For this reason, you can be vaccinated in a health facility where you are not registered.

This will depend on the vaccine used by the vaccinating treatment institution on that day.

Yes, residents can choose a vaccine. Citizens invited to vaccinate will be informed about which vaccine is proposed for vaccination. If a person refuses the proposed vaccine, he will be contacted later when the vaccine from another manufacturer becomes available at the vaccination centre.

If the vaccination centre has several manufacturers of COVID-19 vaccines and is not reserved for the second dose, the resident will be able to choose the vaccine he wishes to be vaccinated with.

A person who is sick, has a fever or in the acute period of any disease is not vaccinated.

Side effects are a sign that the immune system reacts to the vaccine and starts producing antibodies that can overcome the virus and prevent it from multiplying, so vaccination allows to avoid the disease or a person suffers from a weaker form of the disease.

Fatigue, pain and swelling at the injection area, headache, muscle and joint pain, chills, fever Normally, they pass after a few days.

Please inform your family doctor and/or the State Medicines Control Agency of suspected adverse reactions to the vaccine.

Yes, you should contact your family doctor for incapacity.

Contact the treatment institution where you received the first vaccine shot and arrange a second vaccine after a 12-week break.

Yes, this is your right. Vaccination is not mandatory.

Vaccines against COVID-19 are medicines aimed at preventing new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 diseases by inducing an immune response of the body.

The current pandemic of COVID-19 is a global crisis with enormous negative impact on human health, social and economic life.

COVID-19 can cause serious illnesses with still unknown long-term consequences for people of any age. Some cases of diseases can end in a fatal outcome.

Safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 are needed to protect public health, especially healthcare professionals and vulnerable groups such as the elderly or those suffering from chronic diseases.

Since the virus is new, there is currently not enough knowledge of how long immunity will remain after vaccination, and it is also unclear whether regular revaccination will be required.

Viruses usually mutate (the genetic material of the virus changes), but mutations do not necessarily affect the effectiveness of the vaccine against the virus.

Some vaccines against viral diseases remain effective many years after their creation and provide long-term protection.

On the other hand, with diseases such as influenza, the strains of the virus change so often and so much that the composition of the vaccine needs to be updated annually in order to make it effective.

The scientific community and regulatory authorities will monitor whether the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is changing over time and, if so, whether vaccines can protect people from infection.

Each municipality has a vaccination coordinator — a municipal doctor or another administration employee, who will coordinate the vaccination process in a specific municipality and the personal health care institutions that will organize vaccination of priority groups.

The appointed coordinators will organize vaccination against coronavirus in medical institutions located on the territory of their municipalities. To ensure smooth vaccination of the population, Ministry of Health experts will work closely with the coordinators.

Both the vaccine itself and the vaccination service itself will be free of charge.

The European Commission makes a joint purchase of vaccines for all countries of the European Union. Preliminary contracts are concluded with six vaccine manufacturers:

1. AstraZeneca
2. Janssen Pharmaceutica NV
3. Sanofi Pasteur & GSK
4. BioNTech & Pfizer
5. CureVac
6. Moderna

Vaccines will be distributed to countries in equal proportions, depending on population numbers. Lithuania will receive more than 7 million doses of vaccine.

Vaccines are delivered by air or land transport from the manufacturer to the warehouses of the Health Emergency Centre (ESSC) and transported from there to medical institutions that carry out vaccination.

Vaccines shall be transported using refrigeration equipment capable of ensuring “cold chain” support for the quantities of vaccines delivered. The supplier must ensure the traceability of the temperature regime during the entire transport.

Some vaccines should be stored at a temperature of at least -75 degrees. For their storage, the ESSC purchased two ultra-low temperature freezers. For other vaccines, that require a temperature of 2-8 degrees, the ESSC shall have a refrigerating chamber adapted to store the medicinal products.