RO health minister: Extending use of Covid-19 pass no longer urgent

The ‘green’ Covid-19 pass for the workplace is no longer urgent as the fifth wave the country is experiencing could end in a few weeks, health minister Alexandru Rafila told television station Digi24.

“I no longer see the urgency of the pass because any legislative initiative […] requires a time to implement, which means several weeks and I hope this fifth wave ends in a few weeks,” he said.

In October of last year, the Covid-19 pass was introduced for access to restaurants, malls, non-essential shops, and cultural venues, among others, as the country was hit by the fourth wave of the pandemic and was struggling with a record number of cases and hospital admissions. The number of Covid-19 cases has been growing over the past two weeks, with 10,062 cases reported on January 15.

The certificate’s use was to be extended to the workplace, but this did not receive political support, Rafila explained.

“It is not a victim [of politics]. It is something that did not receive political support. To me, the most unpleasant thing was this continuous shifting of responsibility: who is to blame for this situation related to not adopting a form of the green certificate or the Covid-19 pass,” Rafila said.

He explained that one of the purposes of the Covid-19 pass is to encourage vaccination.

“When people need such a certificate that includes vaccination to travel or go to work, they get vaccinated to receive it and to not have to undergo testing periodically,” he explained.

“The second purpose is related to public health, as we have proposed it in the project done together with the colleagues from the [public health institute] INSP - the pass would be introduced for a limited period of time to put a brake on transmission. If those who use public transport, go to work are vaccinated, have recovered from the illness or a tested, the transmissibility drops, especially in public transport, which is a main source of transmission,” he added.

(Photo: Karzof Pleine/ Dreamstime)