Health minister: Romania can’t afford a lockdown or to ignore prevention rules

Romania can’t afford another lockdown or to ignore the Covid-19 prevention rules, health minister Nelu Tătaru told television station Digi 24.

Although the authorities are working to increase the number of hospital beds for Covid-19 patients, the number of health professionals able to provide care stays the same, he said.

“I don’t think anyone can afford a lockdown. We all have some rules we need to follow. We have hospitals that have been working with the same staff for the past seven months. We are increasing the number of intensive care beds, of beds in the Covid-19 support hospitals, but the staff is the same, transferred from one unit to another,” Tătaru explained.

He pointed to a shortage of doctors able to work in intensive care units, where there should be one doctor for every two beds. He explained that residents are helping and that the number of residency places for specialties such as intensive care medicine, public health, infectious diseases, and hygiene was increased to a maximum.

In a press conference held this weekend in Iași, in a county that has seen an increasing number of Covid-19 cases, Tătaru said the hospital admission protocol for Covid-19 patients would be reassessed.

Asymptomatic Covid-19 patients will be assessed at home and afterward be scheduled for investigations, while patients with symptoms and other medical conditions will remain admitted, he said.

The measure is meant to prevent the crowding of hospitals, where the emergency units are filled with asymptomatic patients, he explained.

“Asymptomatic patients will be evaluated at home and scheduled for investigations. The patients with symptoms and other medical conditions will remain admitted. The patients with symptoms but no other medical conditions will be evaluated and then sent home, under the supervision of family doctors,” Tătaru explained, quoted by News.ro.

He insisted on the importance of following the prevention rules and recommended Bucharest residents to wear a mask in all public venues. He said the designated local authorities would decide on whether mask wearing should be mandatory in all public venues in Bucharest in the coming days,