The Romanian authorities have signed a contract to purchase 9 million doses of CureVac COVID-19 vaccine and earmarked the funds in this regard, health minister Vlad Voiculescu announced, Agerpres reported.

The vaccine has not yet been approved, but there is still a clear understanding that if the process goes further and the vaccine is approved, it will be produced in reasonable quantities, minister Voiculescu said.

The country decided to defer vaccination of certain categories by ten days amid insufficient doses of the available vaccines (Pfizer/BionTech and Moderna).

Romania plans to vaccinate 10.4 mln people by September, for which it needs 20.8 mln doses.

The minister also announced that some 30% of those vaccinated for COVID-19 in Romania had not previously registered in the online platform, implying that nearly one-third of those who got vaccinated did it out of the standard procedures. He ordered an inspection of the situation.

"There are 30% of people who are in the National Vaccination Register [registered as vaccinated already] but are not on the platform used for registration. There are vaccination centers that are not computerized as they should be, where things are still written on paper. The fact that people do not register on the platform and go directly to the center is a vulnerability that we reported to [head of vaccination operations] Valeriu Gheorghita. We must advance with the digitalization and clarification of the process," Vlad Voiculescu stated in a press conference on Wednesday, January 27.

In related news, minister Voiculescu announced that three more patients were spotted with the new strain of the coronavirus in Romania.

(Photo: Gov.ro)

editor@romania-insider.com