PM Citu: Romania did not buy 120 million anti-COVID vaccines - order for several years

Prime Minister Florin Citu said on Wednesday that Romania has not bought 120 million doses of anti-COVID vaccine, these being only ordered based on a strategy assumed at the level of the European Union that allows, depending on situation, also their resale or donation.

"We did not buy them. These are an order. (...) The strategy to buy a vaccine is assumed throughout the European Union. Everyone has the same strategy (...), all countries are going in the same direction. The strategy was originally made by the European Commission, taking into account this system of resale of the vaccine or donations to other countries. (...) So it is a strategy in which we have taken part. If we do not participate in this strategy, we could not have had the vaccine just as quickly," Citu said at Victoria Palace, when asked why Romania needed to buy 120 million doses of COVID vaccine and how much these would cost.

He stated that the vaccines ordered are for several years.

"We did not buy them, these doses are ordered and they are not for one year, they are for several years. Because from the beginning it was clear that the pandemic may not pass in the first year and we may need doses in the following years. These doses are for next year as well."

The prime minister added that the total price of the doses will be known when Romania will have to pay them.

"We'll see what the final bill is when we pay them. We have sold many of them, the price has dropped to some of them. So there is no fixed cost at first. Firstly the order is placed and then we have also the bill," Florin Citu explained.