The vaccination rate among those older than 12 is close to 50% (49.4%) in Bucharest, Valeriu Gheorghiță, the coordinator of the national vaccination campaign, announced on September 7.

The capital is followed by Cluj county, with a vaccination rate close to 46%, Sibiu county (39%), %, Timiş (36.3%), Constanţa (36.5%), and Braşov (36.3%).

Two counties, Giurgiu and Suceava, have vaccination rates below 20%. The rest of the counties have rates higher than 20%.

At a national level, the vaccination rate among those older than 12 stands at around 31%, Gheorghiță said.

By September 6, 5.17 million people were fully vaccinated, and 5.28 million received at least one dose of a vaccine against Covid-19.

Vaccination started in 2,788 of the country’s 2,862 communes, he explained, with 1.14 million people in rural areas fully vaccinated.

Once the European Medicines Agency issues recommendations concerning the third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, the country will organize accordingly, Gheorghiță said. A third dose would be given to immunosuppressed patients and to vulnerable categories, the elderly, those with chronic illness, and eventually to all who received the first two doses. “In October, beginning of October, we plan to start this phase in Romania as well, provided we have by then all the stages related to the international recommendations of the expert group of the European Medicines Agency and the European Center for Disease Control,” Gheorghiță said.

The authorities also plan to start a vaccination campaign in schools and universities, set to run for two months. The campaign targets pupils and their families, students, teaching and non-teaching staff. In the case of the pre-university school cycles, mobile vaccination teams will be deployed, or vaccinations centers will be set up in schools. Another option is to connect schools to nearby vaccination centers that use one of the two vaccines approved for those older than 12. In the case of universities, vaccination centers will be set up inside campuses or other appropriate venues, the vaccination coordinator explained.

(Photo: George Calin/ Inquam Photos)

simona@romania-insider.com