First batch of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines to reach Romania on Wednesday

Coordinator of Romania's national COVID-19 vaccination campaign Valeriu Gheorghita told AGERPRES on Monday that the first batch of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is expected to arrive in Romania on Wednesday. According to the military doctor, it is about 14,000 doses of vaccine. "On Wednesday about 14,000 doses of the first batch arrive. (...) In the first half-year, as far as I know, there will be 400,000 - 450,000 doses at the most. There are very few doses of the Moderna vaccine," said Gheorghita. He said further batches of the Moderna vaccine will arrive in Romania once a week or every two weeks. "The batches will be once a week or every two weeks. There is no timetable set yet. They are very few. Even if we want to leave it to people to choose, you can't, because there will be centres that won't have them. But they are all the same, there is no problem: two doses, the same RNA messenger, they have the same efficacy, the same safety profile," the doctor explained. The decision on the use of one of the two types of vaccine approved in the European Union - Pfizer or Moderna - will be made by doctors. "The doctors will decide, depending on how many they have on the waiting list; if there are just three more patients, a ten-dose vial will no be opened," said Gheorghita. AGERPRES (RO - author: Roberto Stan, editor: Florin Marin; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)