EU health commissioner urges Romania to accelerate vaccination effort

It is important to accelerate the pace of vaccination to counter the threat posed by variants, EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said upon visiting Romania on July 16.

Very positive meeting with 🇷🇴 Health Minister Ioana Mihăilă in Bucharest on #COVID19 vaccination progress. It is absolutely vital to accelerate vaccination in the coming days and weeks to counter the threat of variants. 🇪🇺 is ready to support these efforts in every way possible. pic.twitter.com/4rL13JzEI7 — Stella Kyriakides (@SKyriakidesEU) July 16, 2021

Kyriakides spoke of the need to take advantage of vaccination in order to get back to normal. “My message to all Romanians: vaccines work, vaccines protect, vaccines defend us and our families and the healthcare systems. We should take advantage of this opportunity to get back to normal life.”

While in the country, Kyriakides visited a vaccination center in Petreşti, in Dâmbovița county, and met with health minister Ioana Mihăilă, who explained that efforts were focused on increasing the number of those vaccinated in rural areas and among the vulnerable categories.

Romania needs to double the vaccination efforts throughout the summer given that only 30% of the adult population was vaccinated, Kyriakides said in a statement prior to visiting the country, Agerpresreported.

Health minister Ioana Mihăilă also urged people to get vaccinated and said the fourth wave of the pandemic would be one of the unvaccinated. In an interview with television station Digi24, she explained that vaccinated people have a lower risk of developing severe forms of the illness even if they get infected with Covid-19.

“Even if the number of cases increased, vaccinated people are not at risk of developing severe forms. This is what we need to be aware of. Even if we had the illness, we get the vaccine because this is how we aren’t at risk of developing a severe form, even if we get infected with the Delta strain,” Mihăilă said.