Opposition asking gov't to suspend discriminatory measures between vaccinated, unvaccinated, pending European Parliament decision

The opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD) is calling on the government to suspend the differentiated measures between COVID-19 vaccinated and unvaccinated persons, saying that they are "discriminatory" and that it is "unacceptable" for citizens' rights and freedoms to be conditioned by the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine, agerpres reports.

The Social Democrats also support free PCR or antigen testing.

"PSD is calling on the government to immediately repeal the measures that introduce discrimination against citizens based on COVID-19 vaccination. It is unacceptable for the government to condition citizens' rights and freedoms on the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine, especially now that it has admitted its vaccination campaign's failure by officially admitting that it cannot reach the initially set targets," the Social Democrats wrote in a statement.

As long as access to the COVID-19 vaccine is free for all citizens, it is necessary to guarantee the same free conditions for other Romanians opting for PCR or antigen testing, says PSD, noting that otherwise, financial discrimination is introduced between two categories of citizens.

"For example, making access to certain spaces or events conditional upon a paid-for antigen test for people who have survived the disease and developed immunity is discriminatory in relation to people who have been immunised by the free administration of the COVID-19 vaccine."

The Romanian government must suspend all these discriminatory measures at least until the European Parliament rules, as an option of providing free tests for people unvaccinated against COVID-19 is currently being intensely discussed, PSD said.

PSD argues that COVID testing is an effective method to combat the pandemic, which would justify free testing, same as in the case of the vaccine.

"The effectiveness of testing can be seen in the case of many countries that, although they have an extremely low vaccination rate, have managed to substantially reduce the number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths by large-scale testing of the population," according to PSD.