Health Ministry's Baciu: Romania hasn't received vaccines from Austria batch

Romania hasn't received vaccines from the one million dose batch from which two people in Austria had been immunised and had adverse reactions, Health Ministry's Secretary of State Andrei Baciu pointed out for AGERPRES.

"This situation has started from two adverse reactions registered in Austria, at a few days distance from the AstraZeneca vaccine shot. Consequently, the European authorities took note, they identified the vaccine batch. This vaccine batch contained one million doses, which were distributed to 17 countries in Europe, except Romania. These are Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden. Moreover, following this event, some of these countries ((Estonia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia), have suspended the vaccination with the respective batch since March 9. We are talking about the vaccines that are part of the batch in question. (...) These countries suspended vaccination on March 9 with the vaccine produced by AstraZeneca, which come from the respective one million dose batch. Romania hasn't received vaccines from the respective batch," Baciu pointed out.

He said that the European Medicines Agency issued a statement on Thursday according to which "immunisation with vaccines produced by AstraZeneca is still recommended."

"Based on the preliminary data and analysis, there is no causal relation between the administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine and the side effects that have occurred, but the investigation will continue. It is further recommended that the vaccine produced by AstraZeneca be administered. About 5 million doses have been administered in the EU and in Romania we are talking about 208,000 doses administered until yesterday. We are analysing and monitoring everything that is happening and we are still waiting for updates from the European Medicines Agency," the Secretary of State added.