The anti-COVID vaccine also offers protection against the Delta variant, and without increasing the vaccination rate it will be very difficult to avoid later an increase in the number of SARS-CoV-2 virus infections, the head of the National Committee for the Coordination of Vaccination Activities against COVID-19, Valeriu Gheorghita, stated on Wednesday.
According to him, there is currently no question of administering a third dose of vaccine.
"At the moment there is no question of a third dose due to the lack of data and the fact that so far the vaccines have maintained their benefits, they maintain protection. Even if the protection is slightly lower in the case of the Delta variant, for asymptomatic infection and milder cases, it still functions when it comes to moderate-severe, critical, serious forms that reach the hospital," the CNCAV representative showed.
He stated that currently in Romania the dominant variant of the virus is the British one, but the data show at this moment that there are many countries in which the Delta strain has become dominant.
"At the moment the dominant strain in Romania is the Alpha strain - the British strain. We have it in entire Europe, in 84pct of the sequences performed the result is the British Alpha strain. However, the data show at this time that there are many countries in which the Delta strain has become dominant," Valeriu Gheorghita also said.
He recalled that more than 3.2 billion doses of the vaccine had been administered worldwide.
"There are more than 3.2 billion doses of vaccine given, but developing countries have up to 1pct of the population vaccinated," said the chairman of the National Committee on Vaccination Against COVID-19.