Romanian health minister expects number of new COVID-19 cases to drop in the coming weeks

The situation is stabilizing in Romania, as the number of COVID-19 infections seems to have reached a plateau, health minister Nelu Tataru said on Thursday, August 27. He expects the number of new coronavirus cases to drop in the country in the coming weeks.

"We are on a stabilizing plateau and, in the next period, we will have days with a higher number of new cases, from one day to the next, and days with a lower number. Today (e.n. Thursday), we had 1,504 new cases, in a context in which we also have 492 patients in Intensive Care, but we had 25,000 tests. Of these 25,000 tests, 15,000 were made in epidemiological investigations, and 10,000 at the patient's request. 15,000 is the largest number of tests made in epidemiological investigations in the last period," Tataru said at local news channel Digi24, News.ro reported.

He also said that the counties of Bacau, Bihor, Vaslui, Iasi, Prahova, and Ilfov, as well as Bucharest, are still registering coronavirus outbreaks.

Asked if Romania can expect a decrease in the number of cases, Tataru explained: "We expect a decrease in the number of cases, not very fast, but it will be a decline from week to week. We've felt this in the last two weeks, but we are not out of danger yet."

He urged people to continue to respect the safety rules, such as wearing a mask and practicing physical distancing, to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus in communities.

The minister also mentioned that, in the first pandemic period, out of the over 83,000 patients infected with the new coronavirus, 5,105 are up to 19 years old. Of these, 1,978 are under the age of 9, and 3,127 are in the 10-19 age category.

Prime minister Ludovic Orban also said earlier this week thatschool-age children represent 6.3% of all coronavirus cases in Romania.

Romanian officials reported 1,504 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, August 27, a record number for Romania since the start of the pandemic. Thus, the total number of COVID-19 cases in the country reached 83,150.

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea)