The only solution to ending the pandemic is vaccination, and if the target of having 5 million people vaccinated by June 1 is reached, “things could open more in the economy,” prime minister Florin Cîţu said on Tuesday, May 4.

Asked about the potential measures, the PM said that people could go to the beach or the mountains without wearing a mask. Other facilities concern vaccinated people. “We can speak of other facilities, so to speak, for vaccinated people. We can speak, for instance, of restaurants reaching full indoor capacity with vaccinated people,” the PM said.

He also mentioned “seaside hotels at 100% capacity for vaccinated people,” and private events allowed for the same category.

At the same time, the PM said the authorities were not yet considering dropping the requirement of wearing a mask in all outdoor public venues. 

“I would wait until August 1 for this. It depends on how things evolve, but I would like to set August 1 for [assessing] giving up the mask. In Israel, they gave this up when they reached 60%. It is clear that this is a level where we could talk about this.”

Cîţu thanked people for following the rules in place over the Easter holiday and mentioned the improving situation concerning the Covid-19 incidence rate.

“The numbers are dropping every day. Bucharest is below 3 per 1,000; actually, there is no county with a positivity or infection rate higher than 3 per 1,000, which means what we did so far was well done. And it means another thing, […] it shows that stepping up the vaccination campaign had a positive effect and the number of infected people is dropping because the number of vaccinated people increased,” he said.

Bucharest, Cluj, Timișoara, and Constanța have vaccination rates higher than 20%, he explained. In Cluj-Napoca, it is at 34% and in Bucharest at 30%, he said.

(Photo: Gov.ro)

simona@romania-insider.com