Staff at vaccination centre make 3m tall Christmas tree out of empty vaccine containers

BUCHAREST: Staff at one the largest COVID-19 vaccination centers in Bucharest, Romania, have built a three meter tall Christmas tree out of the empty vaccine containers.

The tree and present boxes are illuminated by colored LEDs, some of which are placed inside the 19,000 empty vaccine containers used. The idea of building the Christmas tree at the center, where 200,000 people have been vaccinated so far, came up when it opened in March 2021.

Staff collected the containers and started building the tree early November, outside working hours, sometimes spending until 2 in the morning to complete it.

"The tree we have here is made predominantly out of Pfizer containers that we've been collecting since March 1st, 2021 from the people who got a vaccine in out center. Approximately 19,000 containers were used to make it. The lower level is made with Moderna containers and the presents are made with Johnson and Johnson vaccines," Dr. Radu Cristian, Coordinator of the vaccination center told The Associated Press.

Hundreds of people have been dying each day for the past two months in Romania, which has been among the hardest-hit in the current virus onslaught raging through Central and Eastern European nations, where far fewer people have been vaccinated than in Western Europe.

Authorities have taken steps to revive the country's vaccination campaign but so far, only about 7.5 million people of the country's 19 million population is fully vaccinated.

"We are sending a "Thank You" message to all of those who got their vaccine here, showing our gratitude that they chose our center to get a COVID-19 vaccine. We have 200,000 people who got vaccinated here. Behind me one can see an expression of our work, that took place since we opened the center until now." Dr. Cristian added.