European Commissioner for Health Scolds Romania for Low Vaccination Rate

The European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, visits Romania on Friday, July 16, to meet the Romanian Minister of Health. The main reason for the visit is the low vaccination rate in Romania compared to the other member states. Also, she wanted to deliver a strong message: Romania should join the common efforts in combating the pandemic.

Currently, Romania stands in second to the last place in the European Union by the percentage of the population vaccinated with at least one dose. Namely, only Bulgaria stands lower than Romania in the ranking.

This is more surprising as the Romanian vaccination campaign started strong, but faded on the way.

Commissioner Stella Kyriakides tells the Romanian press on Friday that the EU did what it promised – it delivered the necessary number of doses to the member states. Now, the member states should strive to achieve the objective of vaccinating 70% of the population.

In her opinion, as Romania has reached only a 30% vaccination rate, the Romanian authorities should double their efforts during summer, such as to get to a higher percentage of vaccinated people until autumn.

Recently, the European health officials issued warnings regarding the viral strength of the Delta variant, which can send the European Union countries back to lockdown. Also, in Romania, more and more public persons talk about the fourth wave of the pandemic in the country, which is about to come with other restrictions.