New measures to step up vaccination
Physician Valeriu Gheorghita in charge of the vaccine rollout in Romania has announced new measures to step up the national vaccination programme
Leyla Cheamil, 07.04.2021, 14:00
According
to experts, anti-COVID vaccination is an effective and rapid measure to protect
against the virus. The immunization campaign, which kicked off in Romania in
late December is in full swing and authorities have announced fresh measures to
step it up. According to physician Valeriu Gheorghiţă, in charge of vaccine
rollout in Romania, starting April 20th mobile centers are to become
part of this immunization campaign.
20
such mobile units are to be made available all over Romania in a first stage of
this programme. These centers are to be coordinated by the County Committee in
charge of Military Hospitals as they are operated by personnel provided by the
National Defence Ministry. These centers are to become operational in rural areas
where people do not have access to immunization centers or family physicians.
And in
order to streamline the process, the aforementioned centers will mainly use the
single-jab Johnson&Johnson vaccine. Authorities in Romania have decided to
also include the family physicians in the immunization campaign. Gheorghita has
announced that over 3 thousand family physicians have applied for being part of
the campaign with the medical facilities they own.
They
account for 30% of the total 10,940 doctors under contract with the National
Health Insurance House. It is less than we expected, Valeriu Gheorghita said
adding that the project is to kick off nationwide on May 4th. Until
that time, we will have provided all the training for the physicians involved
in the project and have assured all the infrastructure needed in the
distribution of medical supplies so that we may commence this project in very
good conditions. People’s interest in getting the vaccine is high, Gheorghita says
adding that a decision has been made to notify only once a person on the
vaccination list, who has 24 hours to confirm.
Roughly
780 thousand people have enlisted for vaccination, most of them in Bucharest
and Cluj in the north west. About 60% of these belong to the general
population, included in the third stage of the vaccination campaign, 32% are
people belonging to the vulnerable groups, people with chronic conditions,
people over 65, with physical disabilities and 7.5% people working in key
domains of activity. Over 2,100,000 people in Romania have so far got at least
one vaccine dose.
(bill)
