Covid-19: RO authorities expect daily case count to increase faster than initially estimated

The authorities expect to see more than 2,000 daily Covid-19 cases by mid-September, Valeriu Gheorghiţă, the coordinator of the national vaccination campaign, explained in an interview with television station Digi 24. At the end of July, the authorities estimated the daily case count would reach 1,500 – 1,600 in mid-September.

“We don’t expect a good situation. The revised prediction concerning Romania’s epidemiological situation shows that, until now, the increase in the number of cases was faster than we expected; as such, by mid-September, we expect to have more than 2,000 daily cases instead of 1,500-1,600 we estimated initially. This estimate covers the following four weeks; it doesn’t mean it’s the upper threshold we can reach,” Gheorghiţă said.

More than 80% of the new cases are recorded among unvaccinated people. More than 97% of the deaths are among unvaccinated and the rest among those not fully vaccinated, he said.

The increased interaction between people and low compliance with the prevention rules don't help the situation improve, he explained.

“What we see in Romania is people’s high mobility and interaction, combined with low compliance with the prevention rules. This is why we don’t expect a better epidemiological situation in the coming period; on the contrary, the situation will worsen against the background of the Delta variant becoming dominant, including in our country.”

The number of daily cases has been growing since the end of July and exceeded 1,000 on August 28, when 1,015 cases were reported. The number of those fully vaccinated reached 5,116,951 on August 29.

Depending on the Covid-19 incidence rate in every locality, rules regarding school and event attendance, among others, apply. School starts with in-person classes on September 13, but only if the incidence rate stays below six per 1,000 inhabitants.

Health minister Ioana Mihailă said that if the numbers got worse, measures to prevent and limit the spread of the virus needed to be introduced. “If we have to introduce movement restrictions, they will not target the vaccinated, and schools will be impacted only as a last resort. We will discuss it,” she said, quoted by