COVID-19
Romania might have to destroy 8 million COVID vaccine doses that no one wants
Romania has eight million COVID-19 vaccine doses that it might have to destroy once they expire as neither the population nor other countries are interested in them, health minister Alexandru Rafila said Wednesday.
“We have more than eight million vaccine doses in warehouses for which there is no longer any interest. And I’m not just referring to the interest of the population, I’m referring to anyone’s interest, either to buy them or to receive them for free.
“So no one wants to even get them for free. This will also lead to additional costs because at some point when they expire, we have to destroy them,” Rafila told news channel Antena 3.
He added however that Romania “saved” EUR 150 million at the start of this year by selling unused vaccine doses.
“We achieved something important when we managed to sell 7.5 million doses. So we saved around EUR 150 million. We sold them at the same price they were purchased,” he explained.
According to Romania Insider, he believes that last year, the country undertook to buy too many vaccines, which could never be used.