Most COVID-19 deaths in Romania are among unvaccinated, health official says

According to Raed Arafat, the head of the Department for Emergency Situations (DSU), 92.8% of the COVID-19 deaths registered in Romania in the past week were among unvaccinated people, and 5% among those not fully vaccinated.

Also, 80.4% of the confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported in unvaccinated individuals, local Agerpres reported.

Arafat quoted data from the weekly analysis carried out by the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) for the period August 30 - September 5.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, 86% of all deaths were reported among people over 60, but I remind you that in the last period we also had younger people who died, who had no comorbidities and were not vaccinated,” Arafat said during a press conference on September 9.

He also referred to the rising number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the country. For example, Romania had only 31 new cases of infection on July 1 and 2,226 on September 9.

“This growth is important and has led to an increase in the number of people admitted to intensive care units (ATI), from 67 patients in ATI at the beginning of July to 523 patients in ATI today,” Raed Arafat said.

Thus, the authorities are working to make more ATI beds available in local hospitals, as the number of COVID-19 cases is expected to continue rising in the coming weeks.

About 5.3 million people were vaccinated in Romania by September 9, and most of them (5.19 million) were fully vaccinated. However, according to the official report, only 9,028 people received a COVID-19 vaccine in Romania in 24 hours.

(Photo source: Gov.ro)