Real number of daily COVID-19 cases in Romania is 10 times higher than reported, health expert says

The real number of daily COVID-19 cases in Romania is actually ten times higher than the official figures, according to Alexandru Rafila, the president of the Romanian Society of Microbiology. For example, he said that in a day with 4,000 new coronavirus cases officially diagnosed in Romania, the real number of infections is 40,000.

According to studies of seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection, there is a ratio of 1 to 10 between the number of cases diagnosed and the number of people who actually got infected, Rafila said, according to News.ro. However, he explained that this situation is found in all countries, not only in Romania.

“This means that on a day when we have 4,000 diagnosed cases, in reality, 40,000 people get sick in Romania,” Alexandru Rafila said at a press conference on Thursday, October 15.

Romania reported more than 4,000 new coronavirus cases for two consecutive days this week - 4,016 on Wednesday and 4,013 on Thursday. The total number of cases thus reached 168,490 in the country on Thursday, October 15.

Alexandru Rafila, who has been one of the most visible health specialists in Romania during the pandemic, also announced on Thursday that he will join the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and will run in the parliamentary elections on the party’s lists. Rafila will thus open the PSD list for the Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest, according to Digi24.

“It was a difficult step for me, but I believe that I have the experience needed to help this country, not necessarily the Social Democratic Party. We need to have health legislation that makes a goal possible: universal access to health services. Intolerance, polarization make collaboration impossible. We need to focus on projects,” Alexandru Rafila said.

He also said that being a member of a political party “is an opportunity to make a difference in our daily lives.”

(Photo source: Facebook/Partidul Social Democrat)