Update - COVID-19 in Romania: Restaurants, cinemas and theaters will close again in Bucharest. Restrictions extended to bars and casinos

Bucharest’s Minicipal Committee for Emergency Situations decided on Tuesday, October 6, to close restaurants coffee shops, cinemas, and theaters in the city. Events halls will also be closed, Bucharest prefect Gheorghe Cojanu announced. Restaurants within hotels will ontinue to serve their guests.

Update: On October 7, the same committee decided to close the bars, clubs, discos and casinos in the city, which were not covered by the initial decision.

Indoor restaurants and cinemas in Romania reopened at the beginning of September, after staying closed for almost six months - since mid-March when the state of emergency was enforced.

The new restrictions in Bucharest come into force on Wednesday, October 7, and will be lifted after the incidence rate of COVID-19 cases per 1,000 inhabitants (over 14 consecutive days) drops under 1.5. The rate is currently over 2.1 in Bucharest, the highest in Romania, and almost double the countrywide average (1.1).

On Tuesday, Bucharest recorded over 400 new COVID-19 cases discovered by tests in the last 24 hours, representing almost a quarter of all the new cases in Romania (over 2,100).

Iasi, the biggest city in Eastern Romania, also closed its restaurants due to growing COVID-19 incidence. According to the latest official data, Iasi and seven other countries in Romania had an incidence rate of over 1.5 per 1,000 inhabitants, a threshold that triggers restrictions from the local authorities. The authorities haven't released any new data on the incidence rate for each locality in Romania since September 7.

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