COVID-19 vaccination in Moldova

COVID-19 vaccination in Moldova

A Moldovan citizen receiving a Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine donated by the United States through the COVAX initiative in 2022
Date	2 March 2021 − ongoing
Location	Nationwide
Cause	COVID-19 pandemic in Moldova
Organised by	Government of Moldova
Participants	1,076,909 people, including in Transnistria, vaccinated with at least one dose (22 February 2022) 31%
Website	vaccinare.gov.md

COVID-19 vaccination in Moldova started on 2 March 2021. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Moldova was very reliant on external help from other countries, having received donations of vaccines from Romania, the United Arab Emirates, Russia and China. In fact, Moldova's vaccination campaign started due to a donation from Romania on 27 February 2021 composed of 21,600 Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses, with the first vaccinated person in the country being Alexandru Botizatu. Romania had promised earlier, on 29 December 2020, that it would help Moldova with a collaboration project which would include 200,000 vaccine doses to help Moldova combat the pandemic, but also other matters of the country. Romania subsequently made more donations on 27 March 2021 with 50,400 vaccine units; on 17 April 2021 with 132,000 vaccine doses, fulfilling its promise to Moldova; and on 7 May 2021 with 100,800 vaccine units even though this surpassed the promised 200,000 vaccine doses.

However, Moldova also received help from other countries and organizations. On 5 March 2021, the country received 14,400 vaccine doses through COVAX, an international program with the aim of helping poor countries that could not afford many vaccines at the time. Moldova later received 2,000 vaccine units from the United Arab Emirates on 13 March 2021; 71,000 vaccine doses twice on 24 April 2021 and on 30 April 2021 from Russia, a country that promised Moldova a total of 182,000 vaccine units; and 150,000 vaccine doses on 27 April 2021 from China. Moldova also bought other 100,000 of them from the same country, which were also received on 27 April 2021, and has negotiated with several vaccine producers to be able to provide help to its population. Additionally, the World Bank approved funds for helping Moldova with its vaccination programme. The unrecognized state of Transnistria, part of Moldova by international law, has also benefited from donations made to Moldova, having received vaccine units from both Romania and Russia.