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New decisions to combat COVID-19 to be applied as of Monday
Prime Minister Ludovic Orban has said that additional measures to control the COVID-19 pandemic, announced by President Klaus Iohannis at the opening of the Government's meeting, will be implemented on Monday.
"The measures presented by the President must be transposed in the Government's decision on the state of alert, based on Law 55 and normative acts. I request that the proposed amendments to be passed through the National Committee for Emergency Situations be prepared, adopted by the Government. Mr President, we can make the decisions, and the applicability of those decisions will be as of Monday, because we have to go through all the legal procedures to amend the Government's decision. In a way, they should be known before taking effect," said Ludovic Orban, on Thursday, in the opening of the Government's meeting, chaired by the head of state.
Orban called on ministers and heads of institutions "firmness and maximum commitment in the practical transposition of these decisions."
"It is fundamental that the institutions be an example and be fully mobilized in the application of these regulations," said Ludovic Orban.
President Klaus Iohannis said on Thursday that stronger measures are needed to contain the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic stressing that those taken so far were no longer enough.
"Today we have had almost 10,000 new cases of people getting sick, we still have many, too many who have died and we have to be very realistic: stronger measures are needed to control the spread of the pandemic. The measures that have been taken so far are no longer enough. Nationwide measures are required: all classes should move online, public and private employees should work remotely wherever possible, shops should be closed in the evening, at 21:00hrs, at the latest, nightly traffic should be restricted, private and public parties should be banned, fairs and markets should be closed, wearing a mask should become mandatory everywhere in the country, in all public places and at all work places, whether we are talking about indoor or outdoor public places, mask wearing must be generalised and become mandatory, and companies and authorities must be compelled to stagger open hours so that public transport will operate with a much lower load, thus allowing sufficient distance between people," Iohannis said at the beginning of a government meeting he presided over on Thursday.
He said authorities want to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and, at the same time, want to give doctors a chance to treat serious cases in hospitals.
"At the same time we want to continue business activities. We do not want to close the Romanian economy, we want to take measures by which people are protected and the economy continues to operate and yes, we want Romanians to continue their lives as close as possible to a normal life, but these are not normal circumstances, we are amidst a pandemic and we cannot ignore that," said Iohannis.
Romania reported on Thursday a record number of new COVID-19 cases.
As many as 9,714 new cases of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 in Romania were reported in the last 24 hours following 37,685 tests nationwide, according to the Strategic Communication Group (GCS), the official novel coronavirus communication task force. They are cases of patients that had not previously tested positive.
In the last 24 hours, 121 people died from COVID-19 and 1,014 COVID-19 patients were admitted to intensive care for treatment in Romania.