Romania has formally lifted age restrictions for the AstraZeneca shot after a recommendation by an independent vaccine panel in line with what other EU countries are doing.
The health ministry said the panel had given the green light for it to be administered to people age 55 and over scrapping the previous age limit.
Romania has approved Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines, but AstraZeneca was only administered to the under 55s.
More than 1.1 million people have been vaccinated so far in Romania since the rollout began in late December.
Doses have gathered dust in storage because of the restrictions on who could get the vaccine and misgivings among some of those who were eligible for it.
The move came after Germany’s independent vaccine committee last week said new data showed the AstraZeneca vaccine was effective in older groups too, prompting a swift change in the rules by the government.
„Following the recommendations of the Medical Scientific Group in the National Committee regarding the Covid-19 vaccine rollout, the health ministry and the National Medicines Agency of Romania, a decision has been taken to remove the age limit,” the Vaccine Coordination Committee said.
AtraZeneca is suitable for over 18s and like other vaccines it is administered twice with the booster given between 4 months and 12 weeks later.
