COVID-19 vaccination in Romania

[10][11] The National Coordinating Committee for COVID-19 Vaccination Activities (Romanian: Comitetul Național de Coordonare a Activităților privind Vaccinarea împotriva COVID-19; abbreviated CNCAV) is the inter-ministerial body responsible for developing the national vaccination strategy.

[13] Romania heavily relied on its military and intelligence services to set up quickly the infrastructure needed to roll out the shots throughout the country.

The Romanian Army and structures from the Ministry of Interior are involved in the distribution and transport of vaccines.

[14] The online platform used for vaccine registration is also administered by an agency with military status, the Special Telecommunication Service.

[16] Amid disinterest in vaccination, Romania sold or donated almost 5 million doses to countries such as Argentina,[17] Denmark,[17] Egypt,[18] Ireland,[19] Moldova,[17] Serbia,[17] South Korea,[20] and Ukraine.

[17] On 26 December 2020, Ion Cantacuzino Institute in Bucharest received the first symbolic 10,000-dose batch of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

[30] The truck with the first doses of vaccine entered Romania at Nădlac customs the day before in the presence of Raed Arafat, head of the Department for Emergency Situations and Valeriu Gheorghiță, head of the National Coordinating Committee for COVID-19 Vaccination Activities.

[32] On 29 December 2020, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis announced that Romania would help Moldova with a donation of 200,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine units in the future during his meeting with the Moldovan President Maia Sandu in the country as part of a collaboration project about the COVID-19 pandemic and other topics between the two countries.

[35] Moldova received 21,600 Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine doses on 27 February from Romania,[36] which started being administered on 2 March.

[43] The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in the country on 7 February, the first 81,000 doses being distributed to regional storage centers during the same day.

[49] In April, EMA found a possible link between the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and very rare cases of unusual blood clots with low platelet counts, although it said its benefits far outweighed the risks and did not announce any restrictions.

[50] As a precaution, several European countries limited the use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine to older age groups.

[52] Valeriu Gheorghiță announced on 9 March that the third phase of vaccination will first start rolling out in the localities with an incidence rate of at least 4.5‰.

[53] The people from nine localities – seven county seats (Alba Iulia, Baia Mare, Brașov, Cluj-Napoca, Giurgiu, Timișoara and Zalău), a municipality (Petroșani) and a commune (Sânpetru) – could schedule their appointments on the national vaccination platform before the effective start of the third phase,[54] which was set to begin on 15 March.

[55] The authorities introduced waiting lists for appointments, however, without the possibility for people to choose the type of vaccine.

[58] The 60,000 doses in the first batch remained in storage, as Romanian authorities waited for indications from EMA regarding the safety of the vaccine.

[citation needed] In April, family doctors joined the vaccination teams, with first shots being administered in Timiș County.

[67] On 24 April, the first drive-through vaccination center was inaugurated in the parking lot of Deva Shopping City.

[68] Between 23 and 26 April, Timișoara Regional Business Center hosted a three-day non-stop vaccination marathon.

[26] The Ion Cantacuzino Institute in Bucharest and six military hospitals in the country are the centers where the COVID-19 vaccine is stored, as they have freezers with a large capacity that can ensure storage in the required conditions (e.g., cold chains of −80 °C).

[83] Apart from these, local news agencies reported numerous instances of queue-jumping occurring throughout the Romanian healthcare system, as waiting lists were vulnerable to corruption.

[92] However, the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) classified them as "coincidences", ruling out any direct link between vaccination and deaths.

[99] Similar to neighboring countries, a significant portion of the Romanian population is reluctant to get vaccinated.

[100] The most commonly cited reasons are fear of adverse reactions and distrust of the vaccine's effectiveness.

However, the authors also say that more studies are needed that include the role of trust in the government and in science, as those factor also strongly correlate with vaccine hesitancy.