More EU countries offer Romania help in Covid-19 crisis

The Committee for Emergency Situations CNSU approved on October 24 a decision to request international assistance for medicines, equipment, and medical teams to treat Covid-19 patients. The request is filed via the European Civil Protection Mechanism and the EADRCC – Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre.

The decision, available here, was taken “given the acute need to provide medication and equipment needed to treat patients with critical and severe form of Covid-19, and the impossibility to offer a sufficient number of specialized medical staff to grant these patients medical care.”

It comes as the country has seen a high number of Covid-19 cases, against low vaccination uptake, leading to packed hospitals. Between October 18 and October 24, Romania recorded 104,668 cases and 2,898 deaths, with an all time high of more than 18,800 cases reported on October 19. Several hospitals reported having to turn their emergency units into Covid-19 departments or place beds in hallways to accommodate the increasing influx of patients.

In a message on October 23, president Klaus Iohannis said the country was faced with a “catastrophe, a desperate situation” and urged people to get vaccinated against Covid-19.

“The hospitals are overcrowded; the doctors, medical staff are working round the clock; there are no available intensive care places. We are talking about a catastrophe, a desperate situation in which we already received help from eight EU countries,” the president said.

Romania has transferred Covid-19 patients to Hungary, Poland, and Austria. Via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, Austria has sent Romania several types of medicines to treat Covid-19 patients. The country also received equipment from Denmark, the Netherlands, and Poland, and medicines from Italy. Another transport of medicines delivered from the supply of France reached the country on October 24. Moldova sent a team of doctors and nurses. A medical team from Denmark is expected this week at Matei Balş Hospital in Bucharest, state secretary Raed Arafat, the head of the Emergency Situations Department DSU, announced.

(Photo: Octav Ganea/ Inquam Photos)