Romania might revise its anti-Covid vaccination goals: 70% by 2022, 90% by 2023

Romania aims to reach a vaccination rate against COVID-19 of 70% among the eligible population in 2022 and 90% in 2023, says draft Government Decision on the approval of the vaccination strategy against COVID- 19, made by the Ministry of Health.

At the same time, the goal of vaccination coverage among children under 12, when a vaccine is approved for this age group, is only 20%, “given the existing studies that show a high degree of parental reluctance”, the document further reads.

The coordinator of the anti-Covid national campaign Valeriu Gheorghita admitted in a press conference at the Government this evening that the target of 70% vaccination rate against SARS-CoV-2 is impossible to meet by the end of this year. He warned that the fourth wave of the pandemic is not over yet and that the number of new infections will rise in the upcoming period, as pupils returned physically to school.

“During November 1-7, 283,967 people were vaccinated with a single dose, most of them people under the age of 60. About 71,850 are people over the age of 60. We have a decrease of over 50% in the total number of people vaccinated with dose one this week, compared to the previous week, when there were over 575,000 new people vaccinated. Obviously, if we maintain this vaccination rate of about 25,000 new people a day, the total number of people we can reach by the end of this year would be about 8.5 million – so much less than we initially expected, which represents about 50% of the eligible population over the age of 12,” Gheorghita told a news conference at Victoria Palace.

The doctor added that, according to the vaccination rate at the end of October, it was estimated that a 70% vaccination rate could be exceeded in the eligible population. “If the vaccination rate had been maintained, we could have reached 70%. At this moment, it is impossible to achieve this goal. A vaccination rate of 50% of the eligible population is totally insufficient to prevent a significant impact of the next pandemic waves, even for the fourth wave, which is not yet complete, which is evolving, this vaccination rate is not high enough to substantially limit the negative consequences of the pandemic. And here I mean serious forms, hospitalizations in intensive care and deaths,” he said.

National vaccination rate of 38%

Bucharest has the highest vaccination coverage rate in Romania, according to data provided by the head of the vaccination campaign. The chairman of the National Committee for the Coordination of Activities on Vaccination against COVID-19 announced on Tuesday that in Bucharest 63.5% of eligible citizens over 12 years of age have been vaccinated against COVID. Vaccination rates of over 50% are also found in the counties of Cluj-56%, Constanța-52% and Sibiu-50%.

According to the statistics presented by the doctor Valeriu Gheorghiță, 18 counties have vaccination coverage between 40 and 50%, and another 18 counties are between 30 and 40%.

The counties with the least number of people vaccinated against coronavirus are Covasna and Suceava, which have around 27-28% vaccine coverage, said Gheorghiță.

Currently, only 38% of the total population is vaccinated by at least one dose.