During the COVID-19 pandemic, Moldova was very reliant on external help from other countries, having received donations of vaccines from Romania, the United Arab Emirates, Russia and China.

Moldova also bought other 100,000 of them from the same country, which were also received on 27 April 2021, and has negotiated with several vaccine producers to be able to provide help to its population.

[1] The country had announced during a visit on 29 December 2020 by the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis with the Moldovan President Maia Sandu in Chișinău, the Moldovan capital, that it would give a total of 200,000 vaccine units to Moldova as part of a collaboration project on matters of the COVID-19 pandemic and other topics between both countries.

[5] The first person in the country to receive a vaccine was Alexandru Botizatu, a member of the medical staff of the Timofei Moșneaga Republican Clinical Hospital at Chișinău, at 10:00 am.

[10][11] Initially, the Transnistrian President Vadim Krasnoselsky said that the vaccines donated by Moldova "were from the humanitarian aid along the lines of the WHO (World Health Organization)" and not from Romania.

[13] On 13 March 2021, after a call for help to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan by the interim Prime Minister of Moldova Aureliu Ciocoi, it was announced that the UAE had donated 2,000 units of Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccine to Moldova.

[20][21][22] On 22 April 2021, Li Zhanshu, the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, sent a letter to the President of the Moldovan Parliament Zinaida Greceanîi announcing China's intention to donate 150,000 COVID-19 vaccine units to Moldova, something which had been rumoured to happen since 16 April 2021.

[25][27] Russia also delivered 31,000 of the 71,000 vaccine doses to Transnistria directly, without giving them first to the Moldovan authorities as had been made previously with Romania's and the COVAX programme's donations to the country.

[29][30] On the same day, the World Bank approved a total of 24.8 million euros in funds to help Moldova acquire more vaccine units and deploy them to up to 50% of its citizens.

[31] On 30 April 2021, a second batch of 71,000 Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine doses from Russia arrived to Moldova and a donation ceremony with the participation of Greceanîi and Dodon was made.

[36] On 7 May 2021, Romania decided to continue helping Moldova by sending to the country once again 100,800 Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine units, promising that more would follow some time after.