The situation surrounding COVID-19 has been affecting different countries in different ways, depending on how government have been reacting to the pandemic, how healthcare measures are implemented and how citizens respect the rules and guidance offered by healthcare and governmental officials.
Romania, has been handling the pandemic pretty well, with case numbers generally being pretty low and slow-climbing. However, on July 21st and 22nd, two new records were set with regards to the amount of new cases detected and the amount of people who have lost their lives to the virus.
On July 21st, Romania recorded 36 deaths, attributed to COVID-19, which is the highest number since the pandemic hit the country, on July 22nd, this figure was still quite high, at 27 recorded deaths.
However, the number which appears to have started to indicate a concerning increase, is the number of reported cases. On July 22nd, Romania recorded 1,030 new cases, up from 994 new cases on the 21st and 681 new cases on 20th.
The good news is, there have been a record number of tests conducted also, with 24,877 conducted in the past 24 hours. It’s likely that this rise in confirmed cases, can also be, in part, attributed to the amount of tests conducted, highlighting the true scale of the growth in cases, rather than relying entirely on people presenting with symptoms.
“We are facing a significant increase not only in the number of cases but also in the transmission of the virus in communities. If on June 1, we had at least one case in the last 14 days in 350 localities, today there is at least one case in the last 14 days in 954 localities. […] This means a significant increase in the risk of transmission, but it also means that the authorities are more determined to impose all necessary measures to limit the spread of the virus”, remarked Romania’s Prime Minister, Ludovic Orban.
There has been quite a few asymptomatic patients, (those who do not show symptoms), picked up during the testing. Those who do not display symptoms, are the most likely to transfer the virus onto others, and spread the COVID-19 virus among the population.
At the moment, Cluj county has a total of 948 recorded cases, 46 of which were recorded in the past 24 hours, and has generally been recognised for observing the social distancing measures, and sanitation obligations. However, if case numbers continue to increase, it’s likely that additional restrictions will be imposed, either by Romania internally, or people travelling to or from Romania.
President, Klaus Iohannis, also held a press conference at 5pm on July 22nd, primarily aimed at discussing the allocation of €80bn from EU funds, but also highlighted the fact that over 1,000 new cases were recorded.
He simply said, “The bad news today is that we are on the first day we have over 1,000 people detected with the new coronavirus. It is very sad, but sadness does not solve the problem. We can solve the problem together respecting the distance measures, respecting the hygiene measures, wearing a mask.”
