March 16, 2020 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 16.03.2020, 19:55
Coronavirus Romania — The Romanian President Klaus Iohannis announced that a state of emergency was declared as of Monday on the entire territory of Romania for 30 days. Thus, schools will be closed to protect children, pupils and students. Price caps may be regulated for medicines, basic foodstuffs and public utility services. Employees will benefit from social protection, the state of emergency allows the authorities to adopt gradually or immediately such measures as closing the borders, some restaurants, cafes and clubs. Also road, rail and air traffic may be gradually restricted on certain routes as well as subway traffic in Bucharest. Also in the sanitary field, people may be hired without a contest, necessary materials will be purchased directly and the state may requisition certain medicine stocks. The government may adopt measures to support companies affected by the COVID-19 epidemic. As regards the judiciary, their activity will continue only in relation to extremely urgent cases. According to the authorities, the number of people diagnosed with COVID-19 in Romania reached 168, and 9 of these people have recovered and have been discharged from hospital. More than 3 thousand people are in institutionalized quarantine and over 15,500 are in quarantine at home and under medical monitoring. So far more than 36 criminal investigations have been opened in relation to the crime of thwarting efforts to combat the spread of the virus. Meanwhile the authorities have decided that all asymptomatic people who come to Romania from countries with at least 500 confirmed COVID-19 infections such as France, Germany, Spain, Iran and China will enter mandatory self-isolation at home for a period of 14 days. The measure applies to people entering the country by air and by road. After Romania officially entered stage three of the outbreak, the authorities stepped up efforts, adding new measures to those already taken, such as restricting all cultural, scientific, artistic, religious and sports events in enclosed spaces and attended by more than 50 people. Parliament passed an amendment allowing for its sessions and voting to take place through electronic means, in exceptional circumstances.
Coronavirus world — The EC will introduce temporary restrictions for a period of 30 days related to non-essential travel within the EU as part of its efforts to combat and contain the spread of the new coronavirus in Europe. The leaders of the member states will have a videoconference on Tuesday to deal with the issue. More and more states in Europe, the new hotbed of the coronavirus pandemic according to the World Health Organisation, have taken drastic measures to contain the spread of the virus. Italy, which has been in lockdown for several days, saw a record 368 deaths in 24 hours on Sunday. Spain is in almost total lockdown, being the second worst affected country in Europe after Italy. The Spanish authorities said on Monday that the initial 15-day quarantine period would be extended. The situation is also deteriorating in France and Germany has partially closed borders with Austria, Denmark, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland, for all but commercial and business travel. Poland already closed its border with Germany last week. The World Health Organisation says most cases of infection with Covid-19 are now outside China, the country where the outbreak started. On Monday, China announced 16 new infections, of which 12 in persons coming from abroad and said everyone entering Beijing will automatically go into quarantine for 14 days. (update by L. Simion)
