Polish city to limit preschool access for unvaccinated kids

The city’s Deputy Mayor Jędrzej Solarski has told Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper that Poznań wants to give priority to parents who “fulfill their duties and vaccinate their children.”

The new regulations would cover both public and private preschools subsidised from the city's budget, the paper has reported.

More than 200 parents are on a waiting list to get their children into Poznań’s overcrowded preschools, Gazeta Wyborcza said.

It reported that the planned move by the city’s authorities is a response to a rising number of unvaccinated children in the region.

Two years ago, there were roughly 2,000 unvaccinated children in Poland’s western Wielkopolskie province, of which Poznań is the largest city, according to Gazeta Wyborcza. By June 2018 the number had grown more than twofold.

City Hall “does not agree for anti-vaccination groups to endanger the safety of children who cannot be vaccinated,” Solarski said, as quoted by the paper.

He added: "We must act in accordance with the community's interest, hence the new regulations.”

Meanwhile, Poland's health inspectorate has said that measles infections were on the rise nationwide, with 79 new cases reported in the central Mazowieckie province alone since October 10.

The inspectorate has also urged people to vaccinate children against measles and other diseases, including mumps and rubella.

(tf/gs)

Source: Gazeta Wyborcza