Covid-19: Romania goes ahead with administering the AstraZeneca vaccine

The Romanian health authorities decided to continue administering the AstraZeneca vaccine, the national committee coordinating the vaccination campaign CNCAV announced on Monday, March 15.

The announcement comes as several European countries paused its use amid clotting issues concerns. Germany, France, Italy, and Spain are among a series of European countries that temporarily halted the use of the vaccine. Last week, CNCAV said it would pause vaccinations with doses from the ABV2856 batch, also paused in Italy, until the European Medicines Agency (EMA) would investigate it.

The decision to go ahead with using the AstraZeneca vaccine was taken after analyzing the side effects reported in Romania, the motivations of the other countries’ decisions, and the recommendations of the EMA, CNCAV said.

Coagulation disorders were reported in a low number of vaccinated patients, without exceeding the frequency reported in the unvaccinated general population, CNCAV said, explaining that such disorders can have various causes and can occur independently from the administration of the vaccine.

Until the EMA’s Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee ends its assessment of the coagulation disorder cases and issues a recommendation in its March 18 meeting, the EMA recommends going ahead with the vaccination, highlighting that the benefits in preventing severe forms of Covid-19 and death outweigh the risks of side effects, CNCAV explained.

AstraZeneca said on March 14 that a review of safety data of people who received its vaccine had shown no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots, Reutersreported.

Romania kicked off on March 15 the third stage of its vaccination campaign, opening vaccination registrations for the general public. Anyone can now register to receive the vaccine, on a waiting list or make an appointment if places are available, with priority groups taking precedence. In the first nine hours of the opening of registrations to the general public, 47,000 people made an appointment, and 353,332 registered on a waiting list to be notified when places are available, CNCAV announced.

Since the start of the local vaccination campaign, on December 27, and until March 15, 1,487,183 people received the vaccine against Covid-19: 722,957 both doses and 764,226 the first dose. A total of 1,165,967 people received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, 82,225 the Moderna one, and 238,961 the AstraZeneca one.