More than 50% of the health workers were vaccinated during four weeks of the start of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Moldova. Some 86% of all the doses of vaccine available in Moldova were used at national level, Alexei Ceban, epidemiologist of the National Public Health Agency, stated in a news conference, being quoted by IPN.

Asked if the electronic vaccination register enables to determine the posts of the immunized persons, Alexei Ceban said the register was designed in a simple form. At regional and national levels, it enables to see cumulative data per territories and institutions, depending on the producer, and the goal wasn’t to specify the post of each person as time is needed for the purpose. Over 1% of Moldova’s population has been vaccinated by now and the immunization pace is rather good compared with other countries that launched the vaccination campaign before Moldova.

Ninel Revenco, coordinator of the National Immunization Program and of the COVID-19 communication group, said that 141 countries are now conducting immunization campaigns.

As to the reports that the stages of the vaccination process in Edineţ and other district centers are not respected, Ninel Revenco noted that a number of irregularities have been reported since the launch of the immunization campaign. A commission was set up to examine all the cases in which the stages or other procedures weren’t respected. The results will be presented to the Ministry of Health, which will take a decision and will make this public.

National Public Health Agency epidemiologist Laura Ţurcan spoke about adverse events following immunization, saying that 870 such events have been reported since March 2. These were primarily mild ones, such as fever of up to 38.5 degrees Celsius, muscle pain and joint pain. In thirty-one cases, the adverse events were moderate.

As regards the case in Hânceşti, where a man died after he was vaccinated, Laura Ţurcan said a commission examined this case and reported that the death was caused by acute heart failure. There was established no causal relationship between the vaccine and the man’s death.

Laura Ţurcan noted that there were recorded 78 cases of infection after vaccination. The persons were either vaccinated during the incubation period, when they didn’t have signs of infection, or became infected after being immunized as they didn’t have antibodies yet. After the first dose of vaccine is administered, the person is not fully protected from infection and should thus continue to obey all the COVID-19 protective measures.