Romania Starts Selling Excess Vaccine Doses as the Intention for Vaccination Drops

Romania is one of the countries where, despite the promising start, the vaccination campaign failed to reach the desired percentage of the population vaccinated. Precisely, the Romanian Government had set a goal of 5 million people vaccinated by June and 10 million people vaccinated until September.

It’s already July and not even the first goal was obtained.

Romania is second to last when it comes to the percentage of the population fully vaccinated for Covid-19. Bulgaria stands in the last place in the EU, with 11.69%, while Romania reached 23.65%. The average across the European Union countries is way higher, at 34% and there are countries in the EU that perform a lot better.

The interest for vaccination dropped in Romania along with the sudden drop in the daily cases confirmed with the new coronavirus. Yet, the Romanian officials talk about the fourth wave of the pandemic in Romania in the autumn and about the necessity for at least 50% of the population to be fully vaccinated by then.

As the vaccination rate drops, Romania started talking to fellow EU members to offload the excess shots. Denmark and Ireland agreed in principle to buy 1 million doses each from Romania but, in the rhythm of the vaccination campaign in Romania, soon other doses will expire and the country will have to seek another buyer.

An analysis of the Euronews on why the Romanian vaccination campaign derailed so badly after the good start draws some conclusions; the country has the largest number of the population who lives in the rural areas, 44%, the highest percentage in the EU, which makes it all harder for the mobile vaccination centers to reach the villages and to inform the population about the benefits of the vaccine.