Update - Coronavirus epidemic speeds up in Romania: 11 new cases reported on Tuesday

Update: Eleven new cases of coronavirus infection were reported in Romania on Tuesday, March 10, this being the highest number of cases announced in one day since the epidemic reached Romania at the end of February. The total number of COVID-19 infection in Romania thus reached 28, but five of the patients have already been cured, according to Mediafax.

The first eight cases announced on Tuesday were recorded in Bucharest. Three of the new cases are a 32-year old man, a 30-year old woman, who is pregnant, and a 3-year old child, all of whom came into contact with a patient that was treated at a hospital in Bucharest before being diagnosed with the coronavirus.

Four other cases were reported at people who returned from abroad, namely two women who came from Israel on February 29, a man who came from London on February 27, and a woman who returned from Munich on March 7.

According to the strategy, Romania entered the second scenario of the coronavirus epidemic, which includes broader control at the border to check those arriving from outside the red or yellow areas; the establishment of special, dedicated sections in hospitals; extended investigations among contacts of those infected; the limitation of non-urgent surgery operations (in order to make available as much capacity as possible for possible Covid-19 patients).

"The second scenario refers to still sporadic spread of the coronavirus and we are still far from the situation in Italy, Germany not to mention South Korea,” stated health minister Victor Costache, quoted by Libertatea. He added that all patients currently under treatment are experiencing mild forms of the disease, and there is no intubated patient. “We have set up an interactive database with all that means DSP [regional sanitary offices] and county hospitals. (…) We also run simulations for scenarios 3 or 4 because it is important to be very well prepared and to prevent the spread of the coronavirus,” the minister stated.

(Photo source: Inquam Photos / Virgil Simonescu)