COVID-19: Officials say Romania will face a fifth wave of the pandemic

Romanian officials believe that a fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic will hit Romania this winter, most likely after the holidays.

Romanian prime minister Nicolae Ciuca met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels this week, and the COVID-19 crisis and a new wave of the pandemic were among the topics discussed. According to the Romanian PM, the fifth wave will most likely hit Romania in no more than three weeks.

“The message and the essence of the discussions I had with President Von der Leyen focused on the elements related to the COVID crisis. There is indeed a major concern about how each Member State and the Union as a whole are able to manage the COVID-19 pandemic,” PM Ciuca said at the end of his visit to Brussels, Hotnews.ro reported.

“We also discussed the impact that the new wave of the Omicron variant is already having on several European countries, and how we should be really prepared for its impact on our country as well, estimating a time interval of probably not more than three weeks until it will also reach our country. As such, the main topic of discussion was how we are prepared to handle the fifth wave,” he added.

According to the Romanian PM, there were also talks about Romania’s vaccination campaign and ways to increase vaccination.

In related news, health minister Alexandru Rafila said that the fifth wave would probably last at least two months, with February and March seen as months of maximum risk.

“Seeing what is happening in other countries, I believe that the fifth wave of the pandemic will last more than a month and a half, probably at least two months. We have no way of knowing how long it will last, but we can see how things are going. I think the months of maximum risk are February and March,” Rafila said on Tuesday, December 21, according to Digi24.

Romania was strongly hit by the fourth wave of the pandemic, with local hospitals struggling to cope with the influx of cases. However, things got a bit better over the past few weeks as the daily number of COVID-19 cases started to drop. According to the official report released on December 21, Romania confirmed 826 new cases of infection in the past 24 hours, out of about 50,000 tests (PCR and rapid tests).