Moldovan acting PM says joint efforts must be taken to organize people's general immunization as quickly as possible

Chisinau, 6 May /MOLDPRES/ - The Health, Labour and Social Protection Ministry (MSMPS) today organized an online working meeting with the heads of districts and mayors of Moldova, in order to inform them about the current situation nationally as to the carrying out of the anti-COVID-19 immunization. Attending the meeting were acting Prime Minister Aureliu Ciocoi, the leadership of MSMPS, National Public Health Agency (ANSP), experts of the National Committee of Experts in Immunization, as well as of the World Health Organization (WHO), the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.     
Being on the eve of the launch of the third stage of vaccination, the central authorities asked for the support of the local public authorities in the achievement of the common goal of immunizing about 70 per cent of the general population till late 2021.  
The acting PM urged the mayors to take needed efforts, jointly with MSMPS, to organize as many as possible vaccination centres in the district centres, settlements, as well as in enterprises with a large number of employees. ‘’We are set to extend an as large as possible network all over Moldova, in order to cover an as large as possible area and considerably increase the number of citizens daily vaccinated. If we manage to do this, I hope much that, in 3-4 months, we will manage to vaccinate a necessary number of citizens, in order to get close to the needed threshold of the national immunization,’’ Aureliu Ciocoi said. He noted that the country would be able to get to normal only with joint efforts.      
Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign on 2 March 2021, more than 165,000 vaccine doses have been administered so far, of whom 20,302 people have been already immunized, which means that over four per cent of Moldova’s general population was vaccinated and the medical employees – at the level of 80 per cent.  
The state secretary at MSMPS, Denis Cernelea, said that decision-makers had found out an 85-per cent decrease in the rate of infection among the medical employees vaccinated at the first stage. At the same time, the number of people identified as vulnerable and included in the phases 1 and 2 of vaccination is of more than 800,000. ‘’The priority is the vaccination of these people. In the near future, we plan the launch of the third stage of vaccination. The Health Ministry does its utmost to provide the country with the needed stocks of vaccines. Next week, an electronic platform will be launched, which will allow the online scheduling for vaccination,’’ the health official also said.     
Moldova has received 684, 970 anti-COVID vaccine doses, of which 266, 400 AstraZeneca doses, 24, 570 Pfizer doses, 142, 000 Sputnik V doses, 2, 000  Sinopharm (EAU) doses, 150, 000 doses Sinopharm (China) and 100, 000 doses Sinovac of vaccine against COVID-19.
The authorities give assurances that all vaccines authorized were qualitative and efficient. Seventy per cent of all vaccines received were distributed in the territory according to equity criteria.
To speed up the immunization process, local public authorities’ representatives were asked to contribute to the organization of mobile teams, if needed, opening of additional vaccination points, where a large flow of people is recorded, as well as to identity the spaces necessary.
At the meeting, the mayors, as well as the heads of the Public Health Centres from Moldova exchanged opinions, formulating questions and recommendations on the organization of the vaccination process in the territory.    
photo: Government