The Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection said the immunization with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine begins on March 23. Under an order made by the Ministry, 12,282 doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine of the consignment received on March 19 will be distributed to local public health centers, including in the eastern districts, IPN reports.

These doses will be used to vaccinate against COVID-19 health workers and other categories of persons included in the first vaccination stage.

The Pfizer/ BioNTech vaccine is stored at very low conditions (-60 degrees Celsius to -90 degrees Celsius). After a controlled process of adjusting the temperature, the vaccine can be transferred and stored at normal fridge temperatures (+2 degrees Celsius to +8 degrees Celsius) and remains efficient during at most 120 hours if the ampoule is not opened.

Each person will be administered two doses of vaccine at an interval of 21 days. All the immunized persons will be put on the electronic COVID-19 vaccination register.

Last week, Moldova received 24,570 doses of BioNTech- Pfizer anti-COVID-19 vaccine, shipped via the COVAX Facility, a partnership between CEPI, Gavi, UNICEF and WHO. The delivery is the second arrival in Moldova. The first lot consisted of 14,400 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine. Romania shipped the first AstraZeneca vaccines to Moldova on February 27. Recently, the Government announced that the United Arab Emirates donated 2,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Moldova.