Warnings about the 4th wave of the pandemic
The number of infections with the Delta variant of the new coronavirus is on the rise
Bogdan Matei, 20.07.2021, 14:00
All
the voices that, theoretically, should resonate in society urge Romanians to
immunize themselves against the new coronavirus. Medical experts, local
politicians or European officials never tire of repeating that vaccination is
the only solution to prevent the predictably dramatic effects of a so-called fourth
wave of the pandemic. However, despite their constant calls and insistent
pro-vaccination media campaigns, the threshold of five million Romanians
vaccinated with both doses has not been reached even now, more than a month and
a half after the deadline set by the authorities.
While
in Romania, the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella
Kyriakides insisted that all vaccines available in the country are safe,
effective and approved by the European Medicines Agency. The number of cases of
people infected with the new coronavirus, she stressed, increased this month, due
to the appearance of the so-called Delta variant, which is much more
contagious. The 4th wave of the pandemic will affect those who have not been
vaccinated, the Romanian Minister of Health, Ioana Mihăilă has stressed. According
to the minister, less than one percent of those who were immunized contracted the
virus, and that people are not at risk of developing a severe form of the
disease.
The
minister also says that in order to accelerate the anti-COVID-19 vaccination in
rural areas, she will ask for the involvement of family doctors, local
authorities and priests, those who are closer to people in villages. Specialist
doctors do not rule out the possibility of reintroducing restrictions as the
number of cases increases. Dr. Virgil Musta, from the Victor Babeş
Infectious Diseases Hospital in Timişoara (west), says that, for the moment,
the number of cases registered in Romania is very small, but if it increases,
the restrictions will inevitably reappear. On the other hand, the Romanian
authorities announced last week that they would make a donation of 100,000
doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Vietnam. Previously, Romania donated half a
million doses to the Republic of Moldova, mostly Romanian-speaking, and smaller
quantities to other neighboring states, Ukraine and Serbia.
Earlier
this month, the Irish government announced that it had agreed, in principle, to
buy one million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from Romania, a few days after
Bucharest had sold about a million of its surplus to Denmark. The available
doses far exceed the demand for vaccination from the population in Romania,
where reluctance to vaccine is spreading due to an ingrained distrust of state
institutions, disinformation campaigns and lack of public awareness, both Romanian
and international media write. (MI)
