Valeriu Gheorghita sends a very important last-minute official announcement for the millions of Romanians all over the country, the military doctor telling the people that they will continue to try to boost the vaccination campaign in Romania.
Valeriu Gheorghita says that each county should adapt its communication messages regarding the vaccination campaign to the specifics of each community, so that it is still possible to find a solution to convince more people to be immunized.
"Each county, in part, must adapt the communication messages and the vaccination campaign to the specifics of the community, and we need to identify those opinion leaders who can change behaviors at the community level, regardless of which socio-professional category they belong to.
Further, I will present some data related to the vaccination of children in the age group 5-11 years. We know that this activity started yesterday. There are 231 active centers. Yesterday, 390 children in this age group were vaccinated.
Practically, approximately 11% of the people vaccinated with the first dose during the previous day were children in the age group of 5-11 years. Of these, 125 showed up directly at the vaccination center without an appointment.
The next tranche of pediatric vaccine from the BioNTech/Pfizer company is to be received on January 31, in a quantity of about 216.000 doses, and it is very likely that during February we will also receive the other tranche allocated.
Practically, by the end of February we will receive the entire amount of pediatric vaccine contracted for the year 2022. Looking at the evolution of the vaccination campaign, at this moment there are more than 8.056.000 people who have been vaccinated with the first dose. I can tell you that right now we have 50% of the adult population over the age of 18 who have at least one dose of the vaccine, so basically we've reached that vaccination threshold in the adult population.
Of the total population resident in Romania, the vaccination rate is close to 41,8%, so almost 42%. If we look at the vaccination rate by age group, the highest vaccination rate is in the 50-59 age group, where it is close to 57%, and there is still an insufficient vaccination rate in those vulnerable categories over 80 years, that is around 26%."
