Romania will receive the first batch of anti-Covid vaccines after Christmas, and will begin inoculations as soon as this year, the doctor in charge of the vaccination program said Tuesday.
Valeriu Gheorghita said Romania would receive an initial “symbolic batch” of about 10,000 jabs. Initially, 5,000 people will be inoculated, he said.
The European Union said Tuesday it is on course to approve its first Covid-19 vaccine before Christmas after its drug regulator brought forward a deadline for review following the start of immunization campaigns in the United States and Britain.
The European Medicines Agency said an expert panel would convene on Dec. 21 to consider for possible approval the vaccine made by U.S. company Pfizer and German partner BioNTech.
Rising infection rates and tighter lockdown measures in many European nations have added to the pressure on the agency to act as quickly as possible.
Likely that the first Europeans will be vaccinated before end 2020,” Ursula von der Leyen wrote on Twitter after a decision.
The vaccine will be „free and voluntary,” according to Valeriu Gheorghita.
„If it’s approved on Dec. 23, the first batch wll be delivered to Romania between Christmas and the New Year …. And heath professionals who are on the fr9ont line will be the first to gte it,” he told Digi 24.
Romania is hoping to receive 600,000 de doze in January which would allow 300,000 people to be vaccinated.
Romania expects 60 to 70% of the population to get jabs, or about 13 million people in the first six months.
