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Are you brave enough to get vaccinated at Dracula's castle?

May 12, 2021 08:20 IST

Visitors to Dracula's castle are more likely to find puncture marks in their arms than their necks this month, after medics set up a COVID-19 vaccination centre at the Transylvanian attraction.

IMAGE: Bran Castle, famous as "Dracula's Castle," stands among Transylvanian mountains in Bran, Romania. Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Bran Castle, in Transylvania, announced its Pfizer BionTech Vaccine Marathon in a Facebook post published Friday.

 

Completed in 1388, the castle sits outside the city of Brasov. It resembles the castle inhabited by Count Dracula, the main character in Irish author Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula," published in 1897.

IMAGE: A woman reacts after being vaccinated against coronavirus disease in the temporary vaccination center at Bran castle, in Brasov county, Romania. Photograph: Inquam Photos/George Calin/Reuters

Castle staff hope the service will bring more people to the site in Romania's Carpathian mountains, where tourist numbers have plummeted since the start of the pandemic.

Anyone can turn up without an appointment every weekend in May. They also get free entry to the castle's exhibit of 52 medieval torture instruments.

IMAGE: Medical workers, wearing protective gowns decorated with bloody vampire mouth stickers, wait for patients at the temporary coronavirus disease vaccination center at Bran Castle. Photograph: Inquam Photos/George Calin/Reuters

"The idea ... was to show how people got jabbed 500-600 years ago in Europe," the castle's marketing director, Alexandru Priscu, said.

Romania has recorded more than a million coronavirus cases and over 29,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

IMAGE: Alexandru Priscu, Bran Castle's marketing director, in Brasov county. Photograph: Inquam Photos/George Calin/Reuters

The government has said it wants to vaccinate 10 million of its people by September, but a survey released in April by Bratislava-based think tank Globsec showed Romanians were the least inclined to get vaccinated among the EU's eastern members.

IMAGE: Fernando Orozco poses with a mock diploma attesting his vaccination against the coronavirus disease at the temporary vaccination center at Bran Castle. Photograph: Inquam Photos/George Calin/Reuters

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