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Two more novel coronavirus cases confirmed in Romania
Two more people - a woman from Timisoara and a man from Maramures - have teste positive for the novel coronavirus, senior official with the Health Ministry Nelu Tataru said Friday.
He told a news conference at the headquarters of the Interior Ministry that surveillance tests confirmed two cases of the novel coronavirus in a 45-year-old man from the northern city of Maramures and a 38-year-old woman from the western city of Timisoara.
The woman stays at the treatment centre in Timisoara and the man at the treatment centre in Cluj-Napoca.
"After surveillance testing, we can announce that we have two confirmations of positive coronavirus results. It is about a 45-year-old man from Maramures (...) who returns to Romania on February 25, falling ill in Italy outside the quarantined areas, where he goes to a doctor, who prescribes him a symptomatic treatment and he goes home. He arrives in Romania with a fever and goes to a hospital in Maramures, where he is admitted to the infectious diseases clinic of the city where he receives symptomatic treatment and is being tested. With a degree of respiratory insufficiency yesterday, he was transferred to the Cluj Infectious Diseases Centre. Today, we have positive confirmation of coronavirus. The second case is of a 38-year-old woman from Timisoara, who goes to Bergamo on February 17, outside the quarantined area; she returns, and on February 25, she shows a first sign of sub-fever and an altered general condition. She stays at home, goes to a hospital on February 27 for an evaluation, without any symptoms. She gets tested, gets treatment and goes home for isolation. Today, her test is confirmed positive," Tataru said.
According to him, these two cases stays with one of the five infectious disease clinics established for the conduct and management of coronavirus infection. Thus, the woman stays at the centre in Timisoara and the man at the centre in Cluj-Napoca.
Tataru said that epidemiological investigations started as the case definition areas were broadened.
Regarding the Timisoara case, the senior official said the woman is in a good condition, and the man in Maramures is in a "slightly better" general condition, after respiratory failure on Thursday.
Romania’s Health Ministry has asked the Government for extra funds worth RON 450 million (nearly EUR 100 mln) and drafted a bill in this regard, to be able to finance the complex treatments for acute forms of the coronavirus (Covid-19), if such cases occurred on the national territory
Given the World Health Organization's warnings about Covid-19 and the experience of the states already confronted with outbreaks on their territory, a significant percentage of the infected patients develop forms of the disease that need to be treated in the Intensive Care Units (ICU). Given the number of cases that have occurred in Italy, where an important community of Romanians lives, it is very possible that, in the next period, cases of people infected with Covid-19 will develop in Romania as well, the Ministry said.
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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) recommended Romanian citizens who are or intend to travel abroad to get information in advance about the measures taken by the authorities in the destination or the transit country, against the spreading of the COVID-19 infection.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs specifies in a statement that several states have enacted exceptional measures, such as the prohibition of access in the affected areas, the closure of border crossing points or the establishment of mandatory quarantine or isolation periods at home for those who have recently traveled to a country or region where the virus is widespread.
Thus, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recommends Romanian citizens to consult regularly the information available on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the sections Travel Alerts (http://www.mae.ro/travel-alerts), Updated information - COVID-19 (www .mae.ro / node / 51759) that are constantly updated, depending on the evolution.
Updated data on the states affected by COVID-19 infection (registered cases, number of deaths, affected areas) are available on the website of the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention: www.ecdc.europa.eu, says the same source.
Romanian citizens can request consular assistance at the diplomatic mission of Romania in the state of destination, and if they face a difficult, special situation, with an urgent character, they can call the respective mission's permanent phone line.