Effects of the vaccination campaign
The anti-COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Romania has started to produce effects.
Leyla Cheamil, 17.02.2021, 14:00
Considered by experts as the main defense against the novel coronavirus, vaccination gives hope in times of pandemic, given that the year 2020 brought about unprecedented changes in everyones life. In Romania, a large-scale vaccination campaign began in late December, aimed at limiting and even stopping the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. At present, the second phase of the vaccination campaign is under way in Romania, targeting the people over the age of 65 and employees in key areas.
So far, more than 1,560,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have arrived in Romania, of which more than 1,150,000 have been administered, said the president of the National Committee for the Coordination of Immunization Activities against SARS-CoV-2, Valeriu Gheorghiţă. Most of the doses administered were from Pfizer -BioNTech, but Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines are also available. Next week, Moderna will deliver almost 80,000 more doses, and over 75,000 doses will arrive from AstraZeneca on Thursday. The two companies are going to send more doses according to the established schedule.
The effects of vaccination have started to emerge. The incidence of SARS-CoV-2 contamination among medical staff and social workers has decreased substantially in the last four weeks, by over 87.7%, as a result of the first vaccination stage, Valeriu Gheorghiţă underlined. He pointed out that the benefits of vaccination in reducing the SARS-CoV-2 infection are substantial, given that the measures to prevent the spread of the virus were also observed in parallel. The figures show that there has been a reduction in the average number of new cases per week, from about 500 cases to less than 50 cases per week. Valeriu Gheorghiţă also referred to the benefits of vaccination registered in medical and social centers as well as in residential ones.
As regards the vaccination impact among hospitalized patients and the nursing staff in these centers, there has been a 65% reduction in the number of COVID-19 cases in the past four weeks. This effect creates a favorable situation in terms of reducing the risk of disease outbreaks in these residential and social centers, said the president of the National Committee for the Coordination of Immunization Activities against SARS-CoV-2. He also pointed out that, at national level, there are very few cases of people who got infected with the new coronavirus after having received the second vaccine dose, namely about 3,500-3,600 as against almost 700,000 already vaccinated people.
The authorities are giving priority to providing vaccines to those counties with a high infection rate. They are also going to define the incidence threshold taken into account for the priority allocation of vaccines, then a mechanism will be launched through which new vaccination lines will be opened in those respective counties. (tr. L. Simion)
