Romanian PM hails arrival of virus vaccines

Romania's prime minister Florin Catu hailed the arrival of the country's first batch of coronavirus vaccines on Saturday.

The first doses of the Pfizer-BioΝTech COVID-19 vaccine arrived at a military facility in the capital Bucharest, and people across the country were due to start receiving the shots on Sunday.

Welcoming the development, Catu said it was an "important moment" and hoped it would help "eradicate the pandemic in a very short time."

The coordinator of the country's national vaccination campaign, Lt. Col Dr Valeriu Gheorghita, stressed the importance of the vaccine.

He described it as a "safe and efficient measure" in combating the virus as he moved to assuage public concern about its safety.