A host of top Romanian athletes, including Olympic and world champions, have joined a campaign promoting vaccination against Covid-19.

The campaign, titled Champions for Life, was started by the Sports Ministry, led by Paralympic champion Eduard Novak, and includes messages and testimonials from athletes.

Among those who have joined the campaign so far are runner Gabriela Szabo, the holder of several Olympic and world medals; middle-distance runner Doina Melinte, who won several Olympic and world titles; épée fencer Ana Maria Brânză, a European, world and Olympic champion; tennis player Victor Hănescu; biathlete Eva Tofalvi; swimmer Robert Glință; table tennis player Bernadette Szoc; gymnast Marian Drăgulescu; football players Florin Bratu, Lucian Sânmărtean, and Marius Niculae; and rugby players Alexandru Gordaș, Tudor Boldor, Constantin Pristăvița and Vasile Bălan.

Other athletes are set to join the campaign and record messages, the Sports Ministry announced.

“Given the current spread of the pandemic, chances are high that every unvaccinated person, who did not experience the illness, contracts the virus, with unpredictable consequences, among the most serious. The campaign of the Sports Ministry is motivated by this dramatic situation. Romania’s sports elite understood this danger and decided to act in one of the most important causes it ever fought for,” the ministry said.

The campaign will take place on the Sports Ministry’s platforms and social media, on those of sports minister Eduard Novak, on a dedicated Facebook page, as well as online, on TV and radio. The public television TVR is a media partner.

Romania has seen record numbers of cases during the fourth wave of the pandemic against a low vaccination uptake. Around 37% of the country’s population is fully vaccinated at present. A peak of 110,000 people getting the first dose of the vaccine daily was reported around the time the Covid-19 pass was introduced for access to several public venues and events, but the daily number has dropped since. On October 1, 48,985 received their first dose of the vaccine. At least 80,000 people would have to receive their first dose daily to ensure a vaccination coverage of 70% by the end of the year, the authorities previously said.

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simona@romania-insider.com