Today, Prime Minister Florin Cîţu received a COVID-19 booster vaccine dose(third dose) at the Vaccination Centre with the Central Military Emergency Hospital ”Dr.(...)

Statements by Prime Minister Florin Cîţu after receiving a COVID-19 booster vaccine dose(third dose) at the Vaccination Centre with the Central Military Emergency Hospital " Dr Carol Davila" in Bucharest

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Florin Cîţu: Good afternoon! Today, I got the third dose of vaccine, recommended by medicine, to further protect me from coronavirus. I call on those who have already received the vaccine and can get the third dose six months after the second, especially persons aged over 65, who have already health problems, to urgently get vaccinated. Of course, I call on all Romanians who have not been vaccinated, to get vaccinated. You have seen that the overwhelming majority of those admitted to ICU units are unvaccinated. It is very important, you have seen the pressure in Romanian hospitals, it is very important to get vaccinated, it is our only solution.

Reporter: Mr Prime Minister, on January 13, when you were here to get vaccinated with the first dose, you stated that your objective is to have 10.4 million persons vaccinated in September. We are in September, and 5.413.000 are vaccinated. Where do you think we were wrong, who is responsible for not meeting that objective which you established at the start of the vaccination campaign?

Florin Cîţu: The respective objective was linked to the number of doses we could have to vaccinate people. It was an objective we assumed, implicitly we said that we will have in Romania the respective doses and people should get vaccinated. We also looked at yesterday's protest, a cynical protest on the day when we had the largest number of vaccinated people and we see that we have many explanations. One of them is that we have a party in Romania and a movement supported by parties that would have been somewhat pro-European with an anti-vaccination message. The message, which is unfortunately taken over by television and carried on, is a message that we must fight against. Our campaign was presented on television, but I don't think it was presented as much as these messages were presented. I think that when we all agree that we need to promote more pro-vaccination messages and fewer anti-vaccination messages, we will see more people vaccinated. At the same time, I want to say that it is the responsibility of each of us to get vaccinated, and we need to keep in mind that when we get vaccinated, we protect ourselves and those around us: our families, our loved ones.

Reporter: 8.98 is the incidence rate per Bucharest today. I have seen that there are restrictions aimed more at those who did not get vaccinated. Do you think that this would be a solution so that several persons get vaccinated?

Florin Cîţu: This is our opinion. I have seen that other countries went in that direction, we are using the same method, persons who are vaccinated, can have more benefits, do not have these restrictions, the unvaccinated people will have to obey these rules.

Reporter: You said earlier about the protest that took place last evening. There were a lot of protesters, we expect next week an explosion of cases of infection. What is your strategy or how do you manage together with the authorities, the situation, given the limited number of ICU beds?

Florin Cîţu: The irresponsibility of some people falls afterwards on the shoulders of other Romanians. The other Romanians should spend more money as some are irresponsible and will be admitted to the hospital. We will ensure the necessary resources for all who need medical care, they should benefit from the best conditions in this period, but there are a lot of people who observe the rules, are vaccinated, and ask themselves why should they pay for all these irresponsibilities? It is ultimately the duty of each of us, our responsibility to protect those around us. It would help during this period for political leaders to completely dissociate themselves from those who have these anti-vaccination campaigns. I haven't seen them yet, but we will see whether in the next period.

Reporter: /.../ what fines were imposed last evening? What measures did you take and if you are awaiting protests today too?

Florin Cîţu: I expect fines to be applied but we do not have a survey of it yet.

Reporter: Why do you specifically do to revitalize the vaccination campaign?

Florin Cîţu: The vaccination campaign got revitalized, you could see that the number of persons getting the vaccine grew, increasing number of persons get vaccinated every day. We will further promote vaccination. I am here today to get vaccinated with a third dose. I am telling everyone that it is the only solution to overcome the pandemic. We see more and more persons getting vaccinated in Romania, and we are trying through all these measures, in which vaccinated persons have access or remain..., companies remain open, economic activities remain open for the vaccinated persons or who recovered from this disease.

Reporter: Mr Prime Minister, the Romanian state failed in its fundamental mission to protect its citizens, said the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis two days ago, in that statement after the fire at Constanta hospital. Who do you think, failed, if it is a failure at a higher level, given the small number of vaccinated people?

Florin Cîţu: If we look at Romania, I repeat, we had a green summer, Romania had an open economy. If wave four came, I asked everyone to get ready, to get the healthcare system ready for wave four. We will conduct an investigation and according to its results, we will see if wave four was prepared. We brought the vaccine to all Romanians through the vaccination campaign. The town vaccinates the village was presented across the country, and we used the current resources. But again, everyone needs to be responsible. Today, we introduce these measures linked with the green certificate, we will see if they produce results as well. There are measures implemented across the EU too.

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