Romania to receive 200 ventilators from U.S. after talk between presidents, PM Orban says

Romania will receive 200 medical ventilators from the U.S. following this past weekend’s phone talk between president Klaus Iohannis and president Donal Trump, prime minister Ludovic Orban told Digi24.ro.

“Two hundred ventilators will arrive from the U.S. following the discussion between president Trump and president Iohannis. […] We have another 200 ventilators contracted from South Korea. At the same time, we continue the efforts to manufacture ventilators in Romania. There are three projects taking place concomitantly. A U.S. company offered the blueprint under the condition to manufacture only for the needs of the hospitals. This company is one of the highest performing ones,” Orban told Digi24, quoted by News.ro.

The PM argued that the country needed to be well prepared in the event of a second wave of the pandemic.

“One of our concerns was to manufacture the things we did not manufacture before and made us dependent on imports,” Orban said.

The PM also said people needed to be responsible, follow the rules, and protect themselves and others from the risk of getting infected.

He said the testing capacity needed to be increased, and additional measures taken to fight the pandemic.

“We increased our capacity and reached around 10,000 tests. Establishing some rules, for instance, taking people’s temperature – we need to continue to educate people. Including wearing a mask because I have seen some people not wearing it correctly. We need to strengthen the network of hospitals,” the PM said.

Orban explained again that wearing a mask will be compulsory in closed venues, such as stores, offices, institutions, or public transport.

(Photo: Gov.ro)