Romanian Prime Minister Florin Citu announced that the relaxation measures that will come into force from June 1 would be presented this week, Economica.net reported. Romania is going in one direction, and nothing else can happen, PM Citu said on an optimistic note, adding, however, that the "vaccination campaign against COVID-19 must be accelerated." 

President Klaus Iohannis, who recently urged a more active vaccination campaign in the rural areas, implied more cautious views. 

"Vaccination is going well in Romania, but not so well as to justify the triumphalist discourse of the authorities in recent days or to explain alone the way out of the third wave," says doctor and researcher Octavian Jurma, quoted by Radio Europa Libera Romania. He also says that no country has managed to escape the pandemic of COVID-19 exclusively by vaccination.

Over the past 24 hours, as of May 22, 75,451 people got vaccinated in Romania, well below the 120,000 daily vaccines record reached recently and even below the 100,000 average targeted by the Government. Just over one-third of those vaccinated (26,884) were new patients, with the rest getting the second dose.

Since December 27, 2020, 7,274,491 doses were administered to 4,113,110 people, of which 951,729 received one dose and 3,161,381 to the second. Romania's Government set a target of 5 mln people vaccinated as of June 1. According to calculations made by Octavian Jurma, Romania will have 5 million persons vaccinated with at least one dose on June 12, 2021, if the current average daily vaccination is maintained. The target of 10 million people vaccinated on September 1 with at least one dose will also be postponed by two weeks, i.e. on 15 October 2021. This will happen if the current vaccination rate is maintained.

(Photo: Virgil Simionescu/ Inquam Photos)

andrei@romania-insider.com