Romania fights the Covid-19 resurgence
All figures related to the coronavirus pandemic in Romania are going up.
Daniela Budu, 16.09.2021, 13:50
The number of new coronavirus cases registered in Romania is going up by the day, at an alarming pace. The number of Covid-related casualties is also growing, just like the one of the patients with severe forms of the disease, who have occupied almost all beds in intensive care units. Bucharest has reported the highest infection rate in the last few days, with hundreds of new daily infections being registered.
The infection rate in the last 14 days has exceeded two per one thousand inhabitants in the localities near the capital Bucharest and elsewhere in the country. New restrictions to limit the spread have been announced by the authorities and in the areas with coronavirus hotbeds additional protection measures have been put in place. A report of the National Public Health Institute made public last week shows that more than a quarter of the total number of new infections was registered in Bucharest, Timis (west), Cluj (north-west), Constanta (south-east) and Ilfov (near Bucharest). Since the onset of the pandemic up to present, one in 77 cases was registered with the medical staff, 86% of the people who died from Covid-related causes were over 60 and more than half of the victims were men. The report also shows that most of the people who died had at least one comorbidity.
As regards the number of casualties last week, more than 95% of the victims had not been vaccinated and 3% had not been vaccinated with the second dose. On the same week, some 77% of the newly confirmed infections were in people who did not have the vaccine. In spite of this worrying context, the vaccination pace in Romania continues to be slow, although authorities and experts have repeatedly urged Romanians to get immunized. The daily number of vaccinations rarely exceeds 10,000 per day while the total number of people immunized in Romania is little over 5.2 million people, a third of the eligible population.
In terms of restrictions, PM Florin Citu has said he does not want to halt economic activities in case the infection rate is above 3 per one thousand inhabitants. He has also said that he planned to introduce the Covid green certificate for private events such as weddings and baptisms, as well as for access to restaurants and cafés. Florin Citu: “In order for these activities to remain open, we need to have a form of monitoring. The green certificate is one of the proposals. Restaurants can stay open based on a green certificate. It is only a proposal and we’ll see if it is approved by the National Committee for Emergencies. However, we start from the idea that we do not shot down economic activity if the infection rate exceeds three in one thousand people. We also have the vaccine now, we can check if a person has been vaccinated, tested or had the disease, so we have this green certificate. It is a way of keeping the economy open, and, at the same time, of keeping certain rules in place.”.
Measures that should make the difference between vaccinated and not vaccinated people have also been announced in countries like France, Greece and Germany, to the dissatisfaction of those who do not want to get immunized. (EE)
