State of alert to be extended in Romania

The government in Bucharest has decided to extend the state of alert for 30 more days.

Roxana Vasile, 17.06.2020, 14:00

The
government in Bucharest has decided to extend the state of alert for 30 more
days. However, it is for Parliament to take the final decision on that.

The
COVID-19 outbreak in Romania resulted in a two-month state of emergency and
another period of time when the state of alert has been officially ruled
throughout the country. Immediately afterwards, the Government in Bucharest has
decided to keep part of the restrictions in place and lift other restrictions,
beginning June17, for another 30 days. In other words, quite unlike their
fellow citizens across the European Union, all Romanians will still have to
wait before they can return to the life they had before the COVID-19 outbreak,
a life free of any kind of restriction! The State Secretary with the Interior
Ministry Raed Arafat has made public the reasons why such a decision has been
taken by the Government.

Raed Arafat:

We may have a downward curb of the outbreak, yet there are nonetheless
signs the situation may get worse any time and we may have at least serious hotbeds or even a more difficult situation,
unless compensatory measures are complied with, which have already been made public,
that is the wearing of protection masks, maintaining the physical distance, the
epidemiological screening in enclosed areas, wearing protection masks while on
public transport means..

To put
it differently, the wearing of protection masks in enclosed areas remains
mandatory, and so are the frequent hygiene of the hands and maintaining the
physical distance. However, workout is resumed in gym halls, with the required
sanitary precautions in place. Shops in malls will be opened, but cinema
theaters and children’s playgrounds stay closed. Indoor divine services are
allowed, provided churchgoers have their protection mask on and physical
distance is observed. No more than 20 participants are allowed to take part in
indoor private events, while no more than 50 people will take part in such
events outdoors. Opened again will be the bookmakers’ and the gambling areas.
Also, a list will be published every week, including the destination countries
for which flights will be resumed and the foreign countries Romanian citizens
may come from, without being placed in lock-down any longer. The law stipulates
that, under the circumstances, it is for Parliament to finally rule on the
decisions taken by the Government. The opposition Social Democratic Party, the
most numerous political group in Parliament, has already made public the fact
that they would not vote the extension of the state of alert for 30 days, but
only for 15 days. Moreover, the Social Democrats want the bill to be voted into
law by Parliament to clearly stipulate hospitals must treat patients suffering
from chronic diseases. We recall that many such patients had a lot to suffer from and some of them even lost their lives since in the past three months the
activity has been drastically restricted in non-Covid hospitals throughout the
country. The President of the Chamber of Deputies, Marcel Ciolacu, took a
broadside at Liberal Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, because of the latter’s
flawed communication with the Parliament.

Marcel Ciolacu:

I don’t understand why Mr. Orban did not join us for specific talks on
the issue. There are several European models available, it’s not for us to
reinvent the wheel. Local administrations may be allowed to take the liberty to
implement such models. We only create the legislative framework and afterwards,
the authorities can adjust their measures in keeping with the number of cases
and the situation reported for every county.

There
is an official five-day time span for Parliament to give its consent or turn
down the Government’s suggestion to extend the sate of alert throughout the
country for another 30 days.

( Translation by Eugen Nasta)