Eight months into its coronavirus outbreak, Romania sees new record numbers of number of new infections, fatalities and patients in intensive care.
The coronavirus situation has become worrying in Romania, where, after a few days of 2,000 daily infections on average, the number of new cases has begun to go up abruptly to reach 3,000 new cases for the first time on Wednesday. The latest toll also shows a record number of new fatalities and of patients in intensive care. Romania has 1,050 fully equipped intensive care beds and more that half of them are currently occupied by patients with coronavirus.
The health minister Nelu Tătaru again called on the population to respect the sanitary protection rules in place. He said the medical system can still cope, but that it shouldn't be pushed to the limit because some of the medical staff are also infected. He also warned of the danger posed by public transport and attending events where hygiene rules are ignored. "By respecting certain rules we will have a low number of cases because the community transmission rate will be low", he recalled. "There are, indeed, new hotbeds in homes for the elderly and children placement centres, in hospitals, in factories and companies, but let's see what caused them", said Nelu Tătaru.
One of the recent measures taken in Bucharest to contain the spread of the virus is making the wearing of face masks near schools mandatory and closing theatre, cinema and music venues and gambling halls. Hotels can only serve food for their guests and restaurants can no longer host customers indoors. In localities where the incidence rate exceeds 1.5 cases per 1,000 inhabitants, all restaurants, cafes and clubs have been closed for two weeks. More compliance checks are being conducted at markets and on public transport.
The Social Democratic Party in opposition blames the whole situation on the Liberal government and president Klaus Iohannis. "The government has failed to take the necessary measures for reopening schools safely and has failed to build up a stock of Remdesivir and to purchase ventilators for hospitals", said the Social Democrats' leader Marcel Ciolacu. His party also criticised the decision to close restaurants and bars, recalling how badly hit was the hospitality sector by the coronavirus outbreak.
"The new restrictions are inevitable in the current context", emphasised, however, president Klaus Iohannis, adding: "the sooner these measures are introduced and respected, the sooner will we see their effects, allowing us to lift them again". "We are at a critical point", warned the president and called on everyone to show responsibility.
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