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| - Romania on Wednesday said it will give more than 150,000 coronavirus vaccine doses to neighbouring Ukraine and Serbia, and partially suspend some imports for June because it has a "surplus." Besides sending 108,000 doses to Ukraine and 50,400 to Serbia as "humanitarian aid", the government plans to resell some doses, Monica Althamer, a state secretary in the health ministry, told a press conference. With vaccines outstripping demand, Romania's government is asking manufacturers to suspend some deliveries planned for June. The move comes despite the government missing its inoculation targets. "The management of stocks is one thing and our vaccination campaign another. We knew from the start that at some point we'll have a surplus of doses," Andrei Baciu, also a state secretary in the ministry, told AFP on Wednesday. Romania, a country of about 19 million people, was due to receive more than 7.1 million doses of vaccine in June, but it will settle for 2.6 million doses, Baciu said. More than 4.5 million Romanians have received at least one dose of an EU-approved Covid-19 vaccine so far, with 30,000 people on average getting vaccinated every day for the past week. The government missed its target of inoculating five million people by the end of May, despite organising vaccination marathons, 24/7 drive-throughs and opening centres in places like open-air markets and at airports. Romania's liberal government has been easing restrictions since the middle of May, when the night curfew was lifted and masks stopped being mandatory outdoors. In the meantime, gyms, theatres and restaurants were also allowed to reopen, while private events such as weddings were permitted with a limited number of participants. "The government took responsibility for its impotence to protect its own citizens," doctor Octavian Jurma, a vocal critic of Romania's management of the Covid-19 pandemic wrote on his Facebook page, referring to the suspension of some vaccine deliveries. "It was predictable that a populist and aggressive campaign of relaxation... can't stimulate vaccination," he added, warning that "the pandemic might make a comeback in a few weeks". Romania has recorded almost 32,000 deaths and more than one million cases of Covid-19. ii/pbr
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