Head of RO emergency services points to issue of those circumventing prevention rules

For every coronavirus-related rule the authorities introduce, there is someone who comes up with a way to circumvent it, Raed Arafat, the head of Romania’s emergency services (DSU), said, warning that this can only lead to a worsening of the situation.

“Unfortunately, for every measure, someone comes up with a solution. We are fooling ourselves. We have some measures that did not change: the incidence rates […], suspending some activities when the rate reaches 3 per 1,000 residents; […] we should keep the schools running as much as possible and take measures to limit contact,” Arafat told television station B1TV.

“The only way to avoid returning to a peak like the one of November-December [of last year] is to work together, to follow the basic rules,” he said.

He said new restrictive measures were not being discussed, but the country was “in a phase with a growing trend.”

Referring to a potential measure to have the hotel in ski resorts operate at a maximum of 70% of their capacity, he said this was meant to reduce crowding.

“The intention is to reduce crowding. We see what happens during weekends. So 70% is not little, it is not a lot, it is a number that can help reduce crowding in the hotel and the resort,” he explained.

He also gave the example of an exercise done by a group of radio hosts who called a hotel and were able to reserve a lunch at the hotel’s restaurant without having accommodation booked there. In localities where the Covid-19 incidence rate exceeds 3 per 1,000 residents, the restaurants of hotels and B&Bs should be open only to those having accommodation there.

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