RO authorities plan changes to the vaccination registration platform

Several changes will be made to the Covid-19 vaccination booking platform, Valeriu Gheorghiță, the coordinator of the national vaccination campaign, told television station Digi24.

Those registered on the waiting lists will be able to see the estimated time left until the day of the vaccination. They will also know the type of vaccine used in the center where they booked an appointment to avoid no-shows after a long waiting period, Gheorghiță explained.

He said that the platform would start displaying the time left until the vaccination in the first half of April. More vaccination centers will be listed on the platform also starting in April. “By April 13, we will open more than 350 vaccination units for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Another important change – in the first part of April, we will increase the number of vaccinated persons per vaccination unit from 60 to 90, so the capacity of the vaccination centers will increase by 50%,” he said.

Gheorghiță saidthat the authorities were working on developing a platform that would make the process of reporting the vaccination side effects easier as these are underreported in Romania.

Once the Johnson&Johnson vaccine is available, vaccinations could also be carried out at family doctor practices, without the need for registration on the platform, Gheorghiță told Digi24. The AstraZeneca vaccine could also be used at GPs’ practices. Speaking of the Johnson&Johnson vaccine, he explained that it is better suited for mobile vaccination centers, drive-through centers, or for use in rural areas as it is a single-shot one and doesn’t require extreme cold storage.

Romania started the third phase of the vaccination campaign, targeting the general public, on March 15. People can register on the dedicated platform, either on a waiting list or make a vaccination appointment. The vaccination campaign kicked off on December 27, 2020, with a first phase covering healthcare professionals, followed by a second phase dedicated to vulnerable categories and those working in essential areas. Since the start of the vaccination campaign, 1,746,104 people received the Covid-19 vaccine: 775,408 both doses and 970,696 the first dose.