In spite of a very good
\nstart 13 months ago, the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out in Romania gradually went on
\na strong downward trend, influenced by information without a scientific foundation
\ncirculating in the public space, and unfortunately supported at times by
\nhealthcare staff as well.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The authorities’ efforts
\nto encourage immunisation failed to get Romania above the last but one place in
\nthe EU in terms of the vaccination rate. After the initial enthusiasm faded, there
\nwere rare increases in the number of people going to vaccination centres,
\neither scared of the large number of infections or of the prospect of being
\nrequested a vaccination certificate at the workplace. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The ambitious targets
\nannounced by the authorities got increasingly hard to reach, and according to
\ncurrent figures few over 8 million Romanians have at least one vaccine dose. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In the capital Bucharest nearly
\n67% of the people have got at least one dose of vaccine, while 7 other counties have vaccination rates between 50% and 60%, 24 counties
\nbetween 40% and 50%, and 10 counties have rates between 30% and 40%, the
\ncoordinator of the vaccination campaign in Romania Valeriu Gheorghi\u021b\u0103 announced
\nlast week. That was the week when Romania saw over 19,000 infection cases in 24
\nhours, which is more than on any other day since the start of the pandemic. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The situation is
\nnot yet stable, with estimates pointing to a possible 25-28,000 cases per day
\nthis week. The largest numbers of confirmed cases are in Bucharest and Ilfov County, where the demand for
\ntesting is also high. In order meet this demand as soon as possible, the Health
\nMinistry, which estimates the current wave will peak in around 3 weeks’ time,
\ndecided to open 28 testing centres in as many hospitals. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
A feature of this
\npandemic wave is the large number of infected children-some 8-9% of the
\npatients in hospitals are kids. A reason for that may be the change in the
\nrules governing online teaching, which is now only permitted if 75% of the places
\nfor COVID patients in hospitals are filled. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
On the other hand, on January
\n26 Romania is set to begin vaccination for children aged 5 to 11. The dedicated
\nonline platform allowed for children vaccination appointments to be made as of January
\n13, and several thousand requests have already been registered. (A.M.P.)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The first 114,000 doses of COVID vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 will be available in Romania as of January 26<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":88981,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[35392,29948,35339,35374,29951,35403,32402],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-90958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-cases","tag-children","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-infection","tag-rate","tag-vaccine"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n