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Special access line opened in Romania for airport passengers coming from China
Romania's Health Minister Victor Costache said on Monday that special access lines for passengers coming from China were established at international airports.
"For several days now, a special access line has been operating at international airports for passengers coming from China, as well as for Chinese passengers. We also have a database and we know their location in Romania. All travellers coming from China receive some special questionnaires and they are requested to call 112, because their calls are taken over to identify this patient zero. I personally visited the units at the Matei Bals Institute, where these patients can be treated correctly, and the centres that I want to clearly identify at national level are - apart from Bucharest - Iasi, Targu Mures, Cluj, Timisoara, Sibiu and we identify an additional centre in Oradea," said Costache.
He added that, starting on Tuesday morning, the Matei Bals Institute will be able to carry out tests to identify the coronavirus, which will also become possible next week at the healthcare facilities in the mentioned cities, which will receive reagents to detect the coronavirus.
In the event that Romania faced people infected with coronavirus, according to him, the first ten will be treated at the Matei Bals Institute.
"The idea is not to bring all the cases to Bucharest. The first ten cases are to be treated in Bucharest, if we ever have these ten cases, and to create the expertise at national level," said Costache.
About the seasonal flu, Costache said that this year the flu vaccination campaign will start in time.
Romanian experts and officials held talks on Monday on the risks Romania faces related to the new coronavirus outbreak in China. While the virus is seen as a public health emergency despite the WHO not yet declaring it as such, a top hospital official says the risk that this virus reaching Romania is low.
Alexandru Rafila, head of the Romanian Microbiology Society, said as expert talks in Bucharest concluded on Monday that a large part of cautionary measures ordered in Romania last week have become operational already.
He said that the World Health Organisation was yet to decide that the coronavirus was a public health emergency, but that it met all criteria to be considered such an emergency.
Adrian Streinu Cercel, ho heads Bucharest-based Matei Bals Institute for Infectious Diseases, said the risk that the condition reached Romania was low. He said the Institute had all capacity to diagnose and treat patients with the coronavirus, if needed.
He said all people entering Romania while having traveled to China for the past two weeks are being monitored.
No case has been identified in Romania so far.
Speaking of a group of Romanian citizens due to return from China on Tuesday, he said the Romanian Ambassy to Bucharest has informed that all members of the group were healthy.