Bucharest: After medics set up a COVID-19 vaccination centre at the Transylvanian attraction, visitors to Dracula’s castle are more likely to find marks in their arms than their necks this month.
Sight-seers can turn up to Bran Castle’s pop-up vaccination centre and get a Pfizer jab from doctors and nurses wearing fang stickers on their scrubs every weekend in May.
It is hoped the drive might attract more people to the 14th-century site in Romania’s Carpathian mountains, which is indicated to be an inspiration for the imposing home of Bram Stoker’s vampire in his novel Dracula.
The fortress is a popular tourist destination, with tour companies often booking it for Halloween parties featuring “bloody” vodka shots, but visitor numbers have fallen sharply due to the pandemic.
Anyone can go there without an appointment every weekend in May. They also get free entry to the castle’s exhibit of 52 medieval torture devices.
The castle’s marketing director, Alexandru Priscu, said, “The idea … was to show how people got jabbed 500-600 years ago in Europe.”
The 37-year-old, who is usually based in Berlin but has been working remotely out of Romania, told: “I was already planning to come to the castle and I just thought it was the two-for-one special.”
Romania’s government has said it wants to vaccinate 10 million citizens by September. But vaccine hesitation seems to be strong in the country, with a recent survey by Bratislava-based think tank Globsec showing Romanians were among the least inclined to get vaccinated among the EU’s eastern members. Around three million people had been vaccinated in the country of 19 million by the end of April.
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