Transnistria’s vaccination campaign
Transnistria: Starting the vaccination campaign and prolonging the quarantine regime
Published by Moldova.org
on March 28, 2021
Transnistrian authorities announced that the vaccination campaign will begin in the region starting March 29. As following, any available COVID-19 vaccine, including 1810 AstraZeneca jabs, which were received as a donation from the Romanian Government at the beginning of the month, will be used. The donated vaccine wasn’t used right away due to the doubts about the “quality of vaccine” expressed by Transnistria’s institutions.
On the other hand, Sputnik V vaccine batches are still awaited in Transnistria. Tiraspol leader Vadim Krasnoselski stated on social media that “he understands and shares the concerns of citizens about the long absence of the vaccine,” as Infotag reported. Krasnoselski blames Moldova’s authorities for preventing the supply of the Russian vaccine to Transnistria by establishing additional bureaucratic mechanisms.
The National Advisory Committee of Experts on Immunization approved, on March 3, 10 COVID-19 vaccines to be used in the Republic of Moldova: Pfizer Biontech, AstraZeneca -UK, AstraZeneca – Sk Bio, AstraZeneca – SII, Sinopharm, Sinovac, Moderna, Janssen, Gamaleya National Center (Sputnik V) and CanSinoBio. No statements of donations or possibility of acquisition of Sputnik V vaccine were made yet by Russian authorities. That is while the Republic of Moldova has already received 46 170 jabs through COVAX platform (both AstraZeneca and Pfizer Biontech) and 72 000 jabs from the Romanian Government (AstraZeneca).
In the meantime, the Bureau for Reintegration Policies of Moldova (BRP) disapprovedTiraspol’s decision to extend the quarantine regime until May 15, while maintaining the same restrictions on the freedom of movement that last for more than a year (since 17 March 2020). “During this period, the Bureau shows solidarity with the massive number of citizens on both banks of the Dniester who are unable to access vital services, jobs, their localities of residence and are limited in achieving the inalienable right to free movement throughout the country, which is arbitrarily restricted by Tiraspol under the alleged pretext of managing the epidemiological crisis and avoiding the risks of infection,” as it is mentioned in the BRP statement.
Moldovan authorities claimed that such restriction measures are unjustified, given the fact that similar restrictions were not imposed on the right bank of the Dniester despite the worsening pandemic situation in the eastern districts of the country, and the Moldovan authorities provide multidimensional assistance to the population in Transnistria (transfer of critical patients to hospitals on the right bank of the Dniester, directing quotas from humanitarian aid received by the Republic of Moldova, including medical equipment and COVID-19 jabs).
As the BRP representatives said, despite the attempts to build a dialogue with the Transnistrian side, involving mediators and observers in the 5 + 2 negotiation format and with Moldova’s international partners, “the appropriate reactions from Tiraspol are missing, the human rights situation is very precarious, the rhetoric of confrontation and unfounded accusation of the Moldovan authorities is incessant, and the protection of public health requires immediate and joint intervention.”
According to the latest data provided by the Transnistrian administration, 408 residents of the region got infected and 15 people died on March 28. All in all, 39 812 confirmed cases and 861 deaths were recorded.
