Third vaccine doses, now available in Romania
Romania has started administering the third vaccine dose
Daniela Budu, 28.09.2021, 13:50
Romania has joined the countries administering a third
dose of anti-Covid vaccines to their citizens. As of Tuesday, people fully vaccinated
at least six months before may receive booster doses.
In a fist stage, immunisation is open to people over
65 years of age, chronic patients, healthcare and social assistance staff and other
vulnerable categories included in the national vaccination strategy.
The third vaccine dose can be given without prior
appointments in several hundreds of centres around the country, only with mRNA
vaccine. Therefore, people who have received Astra Zeneca vaccines will now get
a third dose produced by Pfizer or Moderna.
Given that vaccination with the Johnson & Johnson serum
began on May 4th in Romania, a booster dose for those who received
this vaccine is not yet necessary. The authorities announced that, alongside
the third dose administration, the immunisation of people who are now choosing
to get vaccinated against COVID-19 continues.
Official statistics point to an alarming increase in
the number of new Covid-19 cases. Between September 20 and 27, almost 48,000
new cases were reported in the country, as against around 30,000 the previous
week.
Dr. Gindrovel Dumitra, coordinator of the vaccinology
group in the Romanian Family Physicians Association, urged people to get the
vaccine, and explained on Radio Romania, what this new wave of the pandemic entails:
Gindrovel Dumitra: I can see a much faster doubling
of the aggregate infection rate. With previous variants, the infection rate
would double every 14-21 days. We are now in a situation where the number of
cases doubles every 7-10 days or even sooner than 7 days. There are places
where this doubling occurs much more quickly. Personally, I am not surprised,
because as I have said over time, it was clear that the Delta variant was going
to spread, even though a lot of people were unconvinced, especially among coronavirus
sceptics.
With 33% of its population fully vaccinated, according
to EU statistics, Romania is only ahead of Bulgaria in this respect. All its
fellow European countries have completed immunisation schemes for over half of
their citizens or even 80%, as is the case in France, Spain, Portugal or the
Nordic states.
Meanwhile, the government announced it would analyse
which measures taken in the other EU countries have had the biggest impact in
terms of speeding up vaccination, and will implement them in Romania as well. The
authorities also consider making vaccination compulsory for some professional
categories, such as healthcare and teaching staff. (tr. A.M. Popescu)
