On Monday, January 4, the Covid-19 vaccination activity will start in more than 90% of the 376 vaccination centers available nationally for healthcare professionals, the authorities announced. Also on Monday, more than 36,000 vaccine doses will be distributed to vaccination centers in every county. 

Some 20,000 people would receive the vaccine daily in the first phase of the campaign, Valeriu Gheorghiţă, the coordinator of the national Covid-19 vaccination campaign, explained.

A total of 47 vaccination centers opened since December 27, 2020, when Romania kicked off the vaccination campaign, and 13,596 people received the vaccine by January 3.

“Starting Monday, January 4, the activity will start in more than 90% of the 370 vaccination centers for healthcare professionals, which should give us a picture of the vaccination rate in Romania. I think the number will be higher, and we will manage to cover in a relatively short time, by mid-January, a large part of the healthcare and social work professionals […] Starting January 4, January 5-6, we should have at least 20,000 people receiving the vaccine every day,” Gheorghiţă said quoted by Agerpres.

The pace of the vaccination can accelerate further, but it all depends on how many vaccine doses are available, he explained. 

“We need to take into account the availability of vaccines. It can accelerate because 900 vaccination centers will open in the second phase of the campaign. […] Many existing centers will remain active and service staff with chronic illnesses, the vulnerable categories covered by the second phase. From this perspective, the vaccination pace should be satisfactory. The important thing is to have enough vaccine doses; we have a weekly delivery schedule, at least for the Pfizer vaccines. On behalf of Romania, some 8.5 million vaccine doses were contracted in the first phase,” Gheorghiţă explained. 

So far, more than 90,000 people registered to receive the vaccine this January, Gheorghiţă told Digi 24 television station, and the process continues. 

(Photo: Guvernul Romaniei Facebook Page)

simona@romania-insider.com