Romania's president says local producers will be helped to produce materials for fighting Covid-19

Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis urged local entrepreneurs to “be proactive” and come up with ideas while assuring them that the Government is willing to support the local production of goods and materials needed in the context of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

“It is a good opportunity for Romanian companies. We need these [medical protection] materials and we have this opportunity,” president Iohannis said.

He talked about local factories that are about to produce medical protection materials and he also mentioned the efforts carried by companies in the automotive sector to produce medical mechanical ventilators - of which Romania only has 1,500 or some 8 pieces per 100,000 people compared to 60-80 per 100,000 people in some western European countries.

However, no local company has attempted yet to produce Covid-19 tests - the key ingredient, besides the strict confinement of infected people, that has helped countries that have been relatively successful in containing the Covid-19 outbreak, such as South Korea and more recently Germany.

Boosting the production of medical protection materials and the medical system’s capacity is needed, but doctors increasingly warn stricter identification and isolation of those infected is a must for keeping the deaths count as low as possible under the circumstances of very limited number of medical ventilators.

(Photo: Presidency.ro)