Acting Prime Minister Aureliu Ciocoi requested Parliament to allow the interim Government to buy vaccines against COVID-19 by derogation from the law on public procurement so as to avoid the delay in the mass immunization of the population, IPN reports.
In hearings at the Parliament’s Standing Bureau, Cabinet members presented alarming statistics concerning the number of infections with COVID-19 and the public health system’s capacities that are close to the limit. Therefore, vaccines should be urgently purchased for mass immunization.
Aureliu Ciocoi said a sum of 137 million lei for purchasing 1 million doses of vaccines was identified in the Government’s reserve fund, in the so-called “immunization fund” of the Ministry of Health and in the funds of the National Health Insurance Company. Additional powers are needed for coping with this wave and for holding talks with foreign producers.
Tatiana Zatyk, secretary of state at the Ministry of Health, said that besides the vaccines delivered to the country so far, 118,000 doses provided free by the COVAX Facility are to be shipped to Moldova in March and April. But the acquiring of at least 1 million doses of vaccines is a pressing need.