Romanian PM allows Christmas mass in churches “as infection rate declines”

Romanian prime minister Ludovic Orban continued president Klaus Iohannis' rhetoric about the decreasing number of coronavirus cases spotted recently and announced that Christmas masses would take place with no restrictions, other than those in force regarding social distancing.

The number of COVID-19 patients who get cured has frequently been higher than that of new infections recently, PM Orban said on an optimistic note.

"You know very well that the services in Romanian churches can be carried out, in observance of the sanitary protection measures ( ...) the services take place. The only thing we are concerned about is convincing as many Romanians as possible to respect the health protection measures, to reduce as much as possible the number of people who become infected," the PM said, according to G4media.ro.

His statement comes just a few days ahead of the December 6 parliamentary elections and after the Romanian Orthodox Church harshly rebuked the Government for its decision to ban pilgrimages this autumn.

On Wednesday, president Klaus Iohannis announced the reopening of indoor food markets by the end of this week. The Government's decision to close these markets also brought much criticism to the Liberal Government of Ludovic Orban. Thus, both the PM's and the president's statements can be interpreted as an attempt to regain the points the Liberals lost in recent weeks due to the unpopular restrictions.

(Photo source: Gov.ro)