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Gov't decides to extend state of alert by 30 days
The Government on Tuesday decided to extend the state of alert by other 30 days, Health Minister Nelu Tataru made the announcement. "After we recorded 166 new cases yesterday, today we had 250 new cases, 10 deaths from yesterday until today and more than 4,500 active cases, in which context we decided to extend the state of alert by other 30 days," Tataru told a press conference at the Victoria Palace.
He added that a third package of relaxation measures is to come. "At the same meeting today, after the National Committee for Emergency Situations' Decision, we decided to relax certain activities," said Tataru.
The Minister of Health mentioned that kindergartens, nurseries and afterschools will resume activities during the summer after a set of measures and norms will be implemented to ensure the social distancing and health protection.
The Government also decided the resumption of activity by the gyms. Tataru said the malls too must receive "certain attention." "And by malls I mean the commercial spaces and not the cinema halls or the food courts or playgrounds. These are common areas, with a certain specificity, which require our attention. I also need to say this that we took and we are going to take certain relaxation measures to the extent in which we can accompany them by preventive measures, with the possibility to intervene in case of unfavourable developments," explained the Minister.
He mentioned that the resumption of the religious services inside the churches will be done by observing social distancing and wearing protective masks. According to him, in case of the physical activity in the open air the same hygiene conditions and social distancing must be observed. "Any private event that takes place inside must not exceed 20 persons and the private events in the open air must not exceed 50 persons," he said.
According to him, the establishment of the state of alert is needed in order to have "the levers" at hand to place an entire locality under quarantine if there is a large number of inhabitants infected with the SARS-CoV-2 there, and also to be able to move the medical personnel.
"Sometimes, if needed, based on these measures during the state of alert we can place an entire village, an entire locality under quarantine. Without it [the state of alert - editor's note], we cannot. We wouldn't have the legal framework and the levers to solve these things. At the same time, if we want to move the medical personnel from a hospital to another when we still have active outbreaks in the hospitals, we won't be able to," explained Tataru.
He also said that the extension of the state of alert is needed in order to have the countermeasures prepared after taking the relaxation measures.
"We are prolonging the state of alert by 30 days. (...) We watch the development of the pandemic every day, every week. (...) And we must find an institutional instrument at all times in order to be able to have the countermeasures prepared after taking the relaxation measures. When we manage a relaxation measure we take some risks, for the cautions or social distancing rules might not be observed. At the same time, we need some isolation measures. We consider each case at a time, each investigation at a time. If there is an outbreak, then we will isolate it," said the Minister of Health.
Tataru also added that the next package of relaxation measures could be adopted after July 1.