Iohannis: Decreased pandemic intensity may create false sense of security in unvaccinated people

President Klaus Iohannis said on Tuesday that the declining intensity of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic could create a "false sense of security" in the unvaccinated people, insisting on the need to immunise a significant percentage of the population, agerpres reports.

"The short-term goal of the vaccination campaign is to reduce the number of illnesses, hospitalisations and deaths caused by COVID-19, and that is already happening. In the medium term, the aim is, of course, to reach the critical immunity threshold that will stop once and for all the spread of the virus inside human communities. I want to draw you attention to a potential danger, perhaps not well enough understood or explained: as the epidemic decreases in intensity, there is a possibility that some people may feel that what has been more difficult has passed and that getting vaccinated no longer makes sense. But that is a false sense of security. Until we are immunised to a significant extent, the pandemic cannot end, and the risk of the unvaccinated persons getting a severe form of the disease remains high. Dear Romanians, do not hesitate to get vaccinated," Iohannis said at a news conference at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace.

Earlier in the day, Iohannis had a working meeting on the COVID-19 vaccination campaign with Prime Minister Florin Citu and several members of the Government.

The meeting was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Dan Barna, Deputy Prime Minister Hunor Kelemen, Defence Minister Nicolae Ciuca, Health Minister Ioana Mihaila, Minister of Culture Bogdan Gheorghiu, Minister of Youth and Sports Eduard Novak, Chairman of the National COVID-19 Vaccination Coordination Committee (CNCAV) Valeriu Gheorghita, and senior official with the Ministry of Health Andrei Baciu.