8 million people vaccinated in Romania
Romania, one of the countries with the lowest vaccination rates in Europe, has gone beyond the threshold of 8 million fully vaccinated people.
Daniela Budu, 07.02.2022, 14:00
More than a year after the start of the vaccination campaign, Romania has struggled to exceed the threshold of eight million fully vaccinated people, i.e. half of the eligible adult population. Of these, over 2.4 million have also had the booster dose. According to official data, the figure is similar to the number of people who have got infected since the onset of the pandemic in Romania almost two years ago. However, the health minister has recently said on a private television station that the real figure could be over ten million infected people.
The authorities warn that the vaccination pace is slow, and remind people that immunization primarily reduces the risk of death or hospitalization. On January 26, vaccination for the age group of 5-11 started in Romania as well. There are more than 300 vaccination offices that carry out such activities. So far, only a few thousand children have been vaccinated, even though official data show that there are a total of 1.2 million eligible children.
According to the coordinator of the national vaccination campaign, Valeriu Gheorghiță, about one third of the currently active COVID vaccination centers reports less than ten doses administered daily in the last two weeks. He believes that the strategy for vaccination against COVID should be reconsidered in the coming months and that vaccination should be included in the National Vaccination Program, especially for risk groups, and the vaccine should be administered in the family doctors offices.
Moreover, vaccination centers that no longer have sufficient addressability will be temporarily or permanently closed. Meanwhile, the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic has been constant for several days in Romania. The contamination rate has remained at one third of the number of tests performed, and the number of hospitalized infected patients increases daily, but the growth rate is small. Authorities expect more than 50,000 cases a day in the next period, even though the transmission of the virus has slowed.
The Secretary of State with the Health Ministry, Adriana Pistol, has more: “The transmission rate has dropped. This means that the number of contaminations will still grow, but the level of growth is not accelerated, it is even lower than in previous weeks. We have this booming number of cases especially on Tuesdays, because not all labs perform tests on weekends.
The state secretary added that the health authorities did not consider the introduction of the mandatory booster dose for internal activities. However, she recommends that vulnerable people should have the booster dose to protect themselves from serious forms of illness and death. (LS)
