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Iohannis: State of emergency to be changed to state of alert from May 15
Easing the coronavirus lockdown restrictions after Romania moves from a state of emergency to a state of alert will be done "step by step," by intervals of about two weeks, President Klaus Iohannis said on Monday.
"Many ask me, 'Well, what's going to happen next?' And I want to say from the outset is that the so-called easing will be done step by step, with such a step usually taking about two weeks, so we will take some measures from May 15, but the next raft of relaxation measures will probably come at the beginning of June, then in the middle of June and so on," Iohannis explained at a news briefing at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace.
He said that after May 15, the state of emergency in Romania will be changed to a state of alert. "The state of emergency will not be extended, I will not issue a new decree to extend the state of emergency. May 14 is the last day of the state of emergency. From May 15, to keep the epidemic under control, we will enter a state of alert, which is regulated by specific legislation that clarifies how to act in the event of an epidemic and we are clearly, unfortunately, in the midst of a COVID-19 epidemic," Iohannis told a news briefing at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace.
He underscored that the situation has not improved yet. "I do not want to give the impression that the epidemic has passed and we are in a normal situation. Unfortunately, the epidemic has not waned and you have certainly noticed from public communications that again there are today over 300 people who have tested positive, and so we cannot say that the disease waned, but at some point we have to move forward and that forward materialises in the form of organisation, going from a state of emergency to a state of alert," Iohannis said.
Iohannis urged the public to responsibility. "In reality, no matter what you hear on TV, no one knows how long this epidemic will last and it depends on us whether here, in Romania, we control it better or worse. I really want all of us to control it well together, which means following the orders of the authorities," the president said.
He mentioned some of the measures after May 15 - free movement locally, the reopening of beauty salons, dental offices, museums and sports facilities for professional athletes. He pointed out that, from May 15, the state of alert will be established, from when wearing a face mask in enclosed public spaces and on public transport becomes mandatory.
At the same time, he said that under a state of alert "gatherings of more than three people in public are still forbidden." "That obviously applies when we go for outdoor exercise, as well" he added.
From then on, bona fide declarations to travel locally will no longer be needed, but "essentially travel will be restricted to local travel," Iohannis added.
"Essentially travel will be restricted locally. But there are some exceptions. Travel can be extended for example on business purposes, for medical reasons or for individual sports, for cycling outside the locality, so individual sports will be allowed," he said, noting that travel restrictions will not be eased in quarantined areas.
"Professional athletes will be allowed, under special conditions to be detailed by specialists, to train at training camps, but they will not restart sports competitions until after a sufficiently long period of training. So, professional athletes, beware. Training camps do not reopen for amateurs," Iohannis also showed.