COVID-19 vaccine coverage, near 49pct in Bucharest

Chairman of Romania's National COVID-19 Vaccination Coordination Committee (CNCAV) Valeriu Gheorghita said on Tuesday that in Bucharest almost 49% of people are vaccinated among the eligible population aged 12 years and over. "Regarding the vaccine coverage, it is almost 49% in Bucharest, so we will easily reach 50% vaccination coverage among the eligible population aged 12 years and over; Cluj County is next, at 45.2% vaccination coverage among the eligible residing population," Gheorghita said at a news conference. He added that there are 12 counties in Romania that have a vaccination coverage rate above the national average - 30%; there are another 27 counties that have vaccination coverage rate of between 20% and 29.9% and there are only three counties where vaccine coverage is under 20 %. "Also, at the level of the mass vaccination campaign, since December 27, almost 5.19 million people have got vaccinated with at least one dose, with most of them - over 5 million people - being fully vaccinated," said Gheorghita. He added that the 12-15-years age group has a vaccination coverage rate of about 4%. "There are almost 33,000 children aged 12 to 15 who have received at least one dose of the vaccine and over 150,000 young people between the ages of 16 and 19 who have received at least one dose of vaccine; basically we are talking about a percentage of vaccine coverage of about 20%." The 60-69 age group has the highest vaccination coverage, of almost 39%, followed by 50-59 group, almost 37.5% and the 70-79 age group - 36%. In the over 80 age group we have about 19.5% vaccine coverage rate and an assessment by the National Public Health Institute (INSP) for the weeks August 2 - 15 shows a more pronounced trend of cases of disease in the over 80 age group, where the risk of trending to severe forms is higher, Gheorghita also said. He drew attention to the fact that there is a trend of new cases in young people. Also, the average age of deaths is decreasing, currently standing at 67 as against 71 as previously known, and for registered deaths, while 94.5% of them included comorbidities, currently in deaths recorded in the weeks of August 2-15 only 88.3% of the deceased had comorbidities. Gheorghita said that this strengthens the higher probability of severe forms of COVID-19 being developed, including among younger people and those who do not have associated chronic diseases, which is worrying. "As we have already revealed, at the moment, the vaccination against COVID-19 can prevent the loss of human lives and deaths. (...)," Gheorghita also said. Regarding side effects nationwide, he noted that as of August 23, 16,976 cases of post-vaccination adverse reactions had been reported, with a reporting rate of 1.75 per 1,000 doses administered, most of which were general, common, anticipated reactions, such as fever, headache, myalgia, arthralgia, asthenia and mild allergic reactions such as hives. AGERPRES (RO - author: Daniel Alexandru Florea, editor: Mihai Simionescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)