Romania tightens pandemic measures amid COVID-19 surge

BUCHAREST, Romania — Tighter pandemic measures came into unit successful Romania connected Saturday arsenic authorities hoped to quell sharply rising coronavirus cases amid concerns that the adjacent microorganism question could overstretch the country’s wellness attraction system.

In mid-December, Romania was reporting less than a 1000 COVID-19 infections a day, but implicit the past week, regular cases person surged to astir 6,000. It is the highest fig of infections since aboriginal November erstwhile cases were connected the diminution pursuing a vicious 4th microorganism wave.

Over the wintertime vacation period, hundreds of thousands of Romanians instrumentality location from different countries, galore from the West, which fueled concerns implicit the menace of the fast-spreading omicron variant. Romania has truthful acold confirmed astir 300 cases of the caller variant.

Health curate Alexandru Rafila said successful a property briefing Friday that Romania is “already successful the 5th question of the pandemic” and that omicron is expected to soon go the ascendant microorganism strain.

“For the clip being, determination is simply a sporadic transmission (of omicron),” helium said. “But it is precise imaginable that successful the coming days, the coming weeks, we volition witnesser a assemblage transmission supported by this caller strain.”

The caller measures Saturday see the mandatory wearing of look masks successful outdoor and indoor nationalist spaces, and textile masks person been banned. Non-compliance with disguise rules could effect successful hefty fines of up to 500 euros ($567), authorities said.

Bars and restaurants tin enactment unfastened until 10 p.m. and run astatine 50% oregon 30% capableness depending connected the area’s corruption rate, and COVID-19 passes are required. The aforesaid goes for sporting events, gyms, and cinemas. Meanwhile, quarantine and isolation periods person been reduced.

Octavian Jurma, a doc and wellness attraction statistician, said the caller pandemic measures are “mostly cosmetic” and compared them to “giving aspirin to a crab patient.”

“These measures were ne'er meant to bounds the pandemic, but to make an illusion they are doing thing much than successful the delta wave,” Jurma told The Associated Press. “We person a cleanable tempest lined up successful Romania ... we volition again spot grounds numbers of hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and deaths.”

Through October and November, Romania recorded pandemic highs of COVID-19 infections and deaths, and astatine 1 clip had the highest mortality complaint globally. The concern crippled the country’s aging wellness attraction system.

Romania, a European Union state of astir 19.5 million, is the bloc’s second-lowest vaccinated federation against COVID-19, with conscionable 40% afloat vaccinated. Experts blasted wide disinformation, a beardown distrust of authorities authorities and an ineffective nationalist run among reasons for vaccine hesitancy.

“I americium not definite the pandemic is manageable successful Romania anymore since the negationists person intelligibly won the ‘hearts and minds’ war,” Jurma said.

Follow AP’s sum of the coronavirus pandemic: https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic