The Minister of Health has taken and announced an extremely important decision that is currently being applied in Romania, it being one that comes against the background of decisions made in the past by his predecessors, and this is because the procedure for the destruction of expired doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The Minister of Health had announced a few weeks ago that this procedure would be carried out due to the large number of doses that were sent to Romania, but which are not used, and now we see a new order aimed at both the storage of vaccine doses and the destruction of those that have expired, or will expire.
"Expired vaccines against COVID-19, temporarily stored in the regional storage and distribution centers provided for in the annex to the Strategy for vaccination against COVID-19 in Romania, approved by Government Decision no. 1.031/2020, with subsequent amendments and additions, are destroyed in accordance with the provisions of this order.
The vaccines provided for in para. (1) are handed over quarterly by the regional storage and distribution centers, on the basis of handover-receipt minutes, to the county public health directorates or the Bucharest municipality in whose administrative-territorial range they carry out their activity and are taken over in their management.
The public health departments of the county or of the municipality of Bucharest hand over, with a view to destruction, on the basis of a handover-receipt report, expired multidose vials of vaccine against COVID-19 to economic operators authorized for the transport, treatment and disposal of medical waste, based on the contracts that concluded with them, in compliance with the legal provisions in force regarding the management of medical waste.
In order to reduce the costs of transportation, distribution and storage of vaccines against COVID-19, the delivery of expired vaccines to the economic operators provided for in paragraph. (3) takes place at the headquarters of the regional storage and distribution centers, on the same day they are taken over according to para. (2).
The funds necessary to finance the expenses generated by the destruction of expired vaccines against COVID-19 will be covered by the county public health departments or the Bucharest municipality from the budget approved for the development of national public health programs, according to the Order of the Minister of Health no. 964/2022 on the approval of the Technical Norms for the implementation of national public health programs, with subsequent amendments and additions.
The county public health departments that do not take expired doses of the vaccine against COVID-19 from the regional storage and distribution centers in accordance with the provisions of art. 1 paragraph (2) and who have expired vaccine doses against COVID-19 in stock, hand over, for destruction, the expired vaccine doses to economic operators authorized for the transport, treatment and disposal of medical waste in compliance with the legal provisions in force regarding the management of medical waste.
Vaccines against COVID-19 expired on the date of entry into force of this order are handed over, with a view to their destruction, to economic operators authorized for the transport, treatment and disposal of medical waste, within 30 days from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette of Romania , Part I.”
