Over 100 drugstores of four national networks as from today will inform visitors about vaccination against COVID-19, with the pharmacists being trained in this regard. The broad information campaign is staged by the Ministry of Health together with the Association of Pharmacists, with support from the World Health Organization Office in Chisinau and the EU Delegation to the Republic of Moldova, IPN reports.
Zinaida Bezverhni, secretary of state at the Ministry of Health, said that in virtue of the fact that the druggists are specialists with higher education, they know and are ready to provide correct information, based on evidence, about vaccination. The citizens will be able to inform themselves in drugstores, to put questions and to ask for additional information. “We welcome this extraordinary cooperation with the WHO Country Office, with the financial assistance of the EU and with support from the Association of Pharmacists. I want to say that this happens for the first time in history. We haven’t yet had a massive campaign involving druggists in the field of public health,” stated Zinaida Bezverhni.
Epidemiologist Alexei Ceban, coordinator of WHO immunization programs in Moldova, said that over 100,000 persons in the Republic of Moldova daily put different questions to pharmacists. WHO aims at a vaccination rate of 70% of the adult population. “Vaccination can prevent serious forms of infection and death. This was proven by the states that already have vaccination coverage of over 70%. We can reach such a vaccination rate,” stated Alexei Ceban.
He noted that the vaccination rate among the adult population in Moldova, which is the target population, is now at about 30%. Over 50% of the persons older than 60 have been immunized. But this rate does not enable to contain the pandemic. Vaccination marathons continue to be staged in districts and more activities will be yet carried out besides the given campaign.
According to data presented by Alexei Ceban, over 90% of pharmacists have been vaccinated so far.
