Addressing an event on the International Nurses Day (IND), Rockenschaub underlined that “nurses make up 50% of the employees in the global health system and therefore, it is important to recognize their contribution, especially in times of pandemic.”

“It is necessary to recognize the merit of the government, Prime Minister Rama and Health Minister Manastirliu for prioritizing health workers, especially in terms of vaccination. I would like to thank Prime Minister Rama and the Minister of Health for including them on the list of priorities,” he said.

“It is imperative that efforts continue to provide health workers with proper conditions. Thank you for increasing salaries of health system employees. It is great that we are honoring our heroes and make joint efforts to provide universal coverage,” the WHO Representative Rockenschaub said.

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He recommended the use of the vaccines authorized by the WHO for emergency use.

“What we can say as WHO is that we recommend the use of the vaccines already authorized by the Organization for emergency use and as of today we have registered three vaccines, namely Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, whereas a number of other vaccines are going through the assessment process for registration,” the new Who Representative in Albania said.

Rockenschaub reiterated that AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and its benefits outweigh its potential risks.

“As we have already seen, the European Medicines Agency made a decision about the AstraZeneca vaccine, saying it is safe and effective. What we can say for sure is that the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine outweighs the risks it may pose,” he said.

The new WHO Representatives noted that the Albanian government’s ambitious plan to complete immunisation process in 14 months will largely depend on the global availability of the vaccines.

“We understand that the government has quite a detailed plan to treat various population groups that need to be vaccinated. Meeting the 14-month objective will depend on the global availability of the vaccines,” he noted.

Rockenschaub said that fresh COVID cases are following a downward trend, but he suggested that the restrictive measures be reviewed to curb the spread of the virus.

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