Romania plans national COVID-19 testing campaign after June 1

The National Institute for Public Health will run a national Covid-19 testing campaign after June 1, health minister Nelu Tătaru told local radio station Europa FM on Sunday, May 10.

The testing campaign will check the population’s immunization and the spread of the virus, three months since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in Romania.

It will be done in collaboration with the World Health Organization.

The number of people to be tested will be established depending on the local evolution of the pandemic at the time, and the existing hotspots.

“It will start after June 1. We need to see when the pandemic ends, or the first phase of the pandemic, because it [e.n. the number of cases] is not going down. Today we had 231 cases, but yesterday was Saturday, a day when the number of tests is a little lower than during the week,” Tătaru said.

He explained that the evaluation would be done depending on the number of cases at that time, and the budget for it will vary according to the type of tests, serological, or molecular.

The health minister said that tests will be done in both large and small coronavirus hotspots and that volunteers will be tested.

Meanwhile, Alexandru Rafila, the head of the Romanian Microbiology Society, said on Sunday evening that “probably” tens of thousands of tests will be carried out, News.ro reported.

According to him, the best test kits available on the market will be used to see the percentage of the population that already had the diseases, both regionally and locally. The testing campaign will also serve to evaluate the upcoming situation.

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