The ruling coalition agreed on offering meal vouchers to those who get vaccinated against Covid-19, health minister Ioana Mihăilă announced, quoted by Agerpres.

The measure is meant to help boost vaccination numbers in the country, currently second-to-last in Europe on the uptake (31.7%) of at least one vaccine dose among those over 18, according to the vaccine tracker of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. 

The meal voucher amounts to RON 100 (around EUR 20), the health minister explained. At the same time, the authorities are looking at organizing a raffle for those who already got vaccinated against Covid-19.

The pilot project to offer vouchers and the organizing of a raffle would initially amount to RON 50 million, prime-minister Florin Cîţu explained, News.ro reported.

The number of daily Covid-19 cases has been growing over the past weeks, with 312 cases reported on August 10, the highest daily count since the end of May. An analysis of the National Institute for Public Health (INSP) showed that, during the last two weeks of July, 81.5% of the Covid-19 cases were among the unvaccinated, and 92.6% of the deaths among the unvaccinated, Valeriu Gheorghiță, the coordinator of the national vaccination campaign, announced. An increasing number of cases is recorded among those younger than 40, Gheorghiță also explained.

By August 19, 5,087,276 people received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and 4,945,811 were fully vaccinated. 

Among healthcare professionals, 70% of the doctors working in public hospitals were vaccinated against Covid-19, the Health Ministry announced. A total of 25,040 doctors (69%) were fully vaccinated. The counties with the highest percentages of vaccinated doctors were Ilfov (86%) and Călărași (85%), followed by Bucharest (83%) and the counties of Vrancea, Covasna (82%), Alba, Ialomița and Satu Mare (80%).

At the same time, 57.65% of the nurses received at least one vaccine dose, and 55.99% were fully vaccinated; and 52.37% of the orderlies and 47.66% of the stretcher-bearers were fully vaccinated. 

(Photo: Cateyeperspective/ Dreamstime)

simona@romania-insider.com