Health expert estimates real number of COVID-19 cases in Romania at about 500,000

About half a million people in Romania may have already been infected with COVID-19, Alexandru Rafila, Romania’s representative to the World Health Organization (WHO), told local news channel Digi24.

He explained that, when a viral infection such as the one caused by the new coronavirus occurs, ”the number of cases diagnosed is much lower than the actual number of cases because many people are asymptomatic or have mild forms that don’t require seeing a doctor.”

According to Alexandru Rafila, the real number of cases in Romania is likely to be 8 to 10 times higher than the reported figure.

Rafila also said that Romania is “very far” from achieving herd immunity. “No country is in such a situation. Even regions reporting a large number of coronavirus infections do not exceed 15-20%, and in our country, the figure is somewhere between 2.5 - 3%. To talk about herd immunity, 70% of the population should get infected, and this would happen in a few years. We hope that this figure will be achieved through vaccination and not the disease,” he commented.

At the European level, in terms of the number of new infections with coronavirus, Romania is “third after Luxembourg and Spain,” Alexandru Rafila also said.

Romania has recorded a total of 70,461 confirmed COVID-19 infections and 2,991 deaths by Sunday, August 16.

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