Head vaccination coordinator on denial of green certificate vote: We'll reap what we sow

Head of Romania's National COVID-19 Vaccination Coordination Committee (CNCAV) Valeriu Gheorghita said on Tuesday about a decision in Parliament to deny a request to urgently vote on the law regarding the green certificate mandate, that "we'll reap what we are now sowing."

He was asked at the Government House to comment on the Save Romania Union (USR) request for urgent debate and adoption of the legislative proposal on the green certificate being denied by the Standing Bureau of the Chamber of Deputies, agerpres reports.

"If the urgency has been rejected, I understand that we do not have an epidemiological emergency and I believe that what we are sowing at the moment we will reap later. That is what I understand as a person and as a coordinator of the vaccination campaign. (...) As a doctor, I believe that we must take those measures that are coherent, logical, so that, on the one hand, they become associated with a reduction in the risk of infection in the population, and also stimulate vaccination coverage because if our measures are only to contain the number of cases - as certain restrictive measures may be without increasing vaccination coverage - we will have the same population receptive to and susceptible of falling ill in the coming months, so the situation will not change. The faster we accelerate the vaccination rate, the more we protect the vulnerable, those who become infected and arrive at hospitals with severe cases for intensive care and who lose their lives," Gheorghita told a news conference.

On Tuesday, the Save Romania Union reported that officials of the National Liberal Party (PNL), the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) denied at a meeting of the Standing Bureau of the Chamber of Deputies its request for urgent debate and adoption of the legislative proposal on the green certificate.

USR said that on October 29 it submitted the request for the green certificate to be debated and approved as a matter of urgency, citing the example of countries such as Italy, Spain, Portugal and Denmark.

"Measures to combat the pandemic do not abridge the freedoms of the responsible citizens, but give them an opportunity to work in medically safely environments, while securing the relatively normal functioning of business activities and the public health system," says USR.