The Romanian government talks below about the situation of the AstraZeneca vaccine, but also about the situation of the vaccination campaign in Romania, plus when exactly the European Medicines Agency will make a decision regarding the British company's serum.
"Valeriu Gheorghiță, coordinator of the vaccination campaign against COVID-19: Starting yesterday, the waiting lists for vaccination appointments were gradually opened and will remain open during the evolution of the entire campaign.
In the last 24 hours, almost half a million people have registered on the waiting lists.
Regarding the vaccine produced by AstraZeneca – At the moment there are, at the European level, countries that have decided to temporarily suspend a single batch of vaccine, others that have decided to temporarily suspend all types of vaccine from AstraZeneca and other countries who decided to continue with all vaccination batches. Also, Great Britain, Canada, Australia decided to continue the vaccination campaign with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Following a meeting with experts from the National Institute of Public Health, the National Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices in Romania, the Ministry of Health and the National Vaccination Committee, we decided to continue, at this moment, vaccination in Romania with the AstraZeneca vaccine. The vaccine is authorized by the European Medicines Agency, which has maintained the same level of recommendation.
Today, the European Medicines Agency and the World Health Organization are reevaluating all data collected and reported at European level. The European Medicines Agency will reanalyze these data, and on March 18 a clarification of all safety data and, in particular, those related to these thromboembolic events is expected. The decision to continue or temporarily stop vaccination with AstraZeneca's vaccine was an extremely difficult one. We weighed the benefits of vaccination, taking into account the fact that we are in the midst of a pandemic, with thousands of people diagnosed every day, who end up in the hospital and in the ATI Department and, unfortunately, some of them lose their lives due to the disease COVID-19.”
