{"id":449268,"date":"2021-03-11T18:23:24","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T18:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/?p=449268"},"modified":"2021-03-11T18:30:12","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T18:30:12","slug":"covid-19-update-more-vaccine-doses-but-also-more-confirmed-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/covid-19-update-more-vaccine-doses-but-also-more-confirmed-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 update: More vaccine doses, but also more confirmed cases"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

The Ministry of Health Labour and Social Protection<\/strong> (MHLSP) announced<\/a>, today, that the executive has allocated an amount of about 60 million lei (from Government’s Reserve Fund) for purchasing COVID-19 vaccine doses, namely 338 600 more, which represent almost 7%<\/strong> of the required doses for the entire country.<\/p>\n

The National Agency for Public Health (NAPH) estimated that a total of 4 851 403<\/strong> doses are needed to reach the target of vaccinating 70% of the population.<\/span> The vaccines doses for 20% of the population will be obtained through the COVAX platform free of charge, vaccine shots for 30% of the Moldovan population are planned to be purchased at a preferential price, while the remaining doses for 20% of the population would need to be purchased directly from the manufacturer.<\/p>\n

To date, 36 000 COVID-19 vaccine doses<\/strong> were delivered to Moldova (COVAX mechanism and the Romanian Government donation). That allowed the vaccination of 8 116 medical employees, mainly those working in intensive care units and COVID-19 centres.<\/p>\n

As following, 18 000 more shots, along with consumables, will be distributed to the medical staff of primary care institutions and district health centres starting March 12, as MHLSP also announced<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the end of March, Moldova will receive other 21 000 AstraZeneca shots, as well as 24 000 Pfizer\/BioNTech vaccine doses through UNICEF. The next batch of 72 000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses are expected to arrive at the end of April, as Coordinator of the Communication Group on COVID-19 vaccination, Ninel Revenco<\/strong>, informed in a press conference<\/a>. “These doses will allow us to move on to the second phase of immunization. We will be able to vaccinate people over 60 with comorbidities,”<\/em> she also said.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the MHLSP emphasized that the COVID-19 pandemic crisis is aggravating in Moldova, as the incidence rate increases, as well as the number of critical patients and the number of deaths. 1753 new cases of COVID-19 infection have been confirmed on March 10, that representing 36%<\/span> of tests that were conducted that day.<\/p>\n\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/03\/new-cases.jpg” panorama=”off” credit=”Source: msmps.gov.md” align=”center” lightbox=”on” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n

More and more medical employees from COVID-19 centres, but also district medical units, raise a red flag regarding the fact that there are no more available beds in the hospitals. Patients end up being hospitalized in the hallways or in staff rooms.<\/p>\n