Romania requested 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine – which is under development – from the European Union, announced Romanian Health Minister Nelu Tătaru on Saturday.
“We made a request for 10 million doses. We would like to insure it for at least 50% of the population.
We will see how much we will receive from the European Union out of this required amount,” said the Minister of Health, according to the Agerpres news agency.
He also added that first, all those who are most exposed and vulnerable–such as medical staff, elderly people, small children and people with chronic illnesses–will be vaccinated as soon as the vaccine is available.
EU member states (and other countries around the world) are currently trying to secure as many doses of the future COVID vaccine as possible, as they are trying to protect their population from the next potential wave of the pandemic. Although several variants are in the testing phase, there is still no viable vaccine on the market. However, the European Union is already centralizing the vaccine request, and Romania registered to this European system for the anti-COVID vaccine back in June.
According to Nelu Tătaru, Brussels will first try to purchase supplies of the vaccine and then distribute them to the EU member states, and this is when Romania will also have access to the vaccine.
Title image: Romanian Health Minister Nelu Tătaru (Photo: gov.ro)
