With six new cases of coronavirus announced just after midnight, Romania reached a total of 95 cases of infection on Saturday morning, March 14. On Friday, 36 new cases of infection were confirmed, the highest number since the epidemic reached Romania at the end of February.

These are the official figures released by the authorities. An online tool that allowed anyone to monitor the live evolution of coronavirus infections in Romania was restricted by the National Public Health Institute (INSP) on Friday, March 13.

Romania is now close to the 100 cases limit that triggers the third scenario of the epidemic, as announced by the authorities in charge of managing this crisis.

In this scenario, the authorities aim to increase the capacity of the healthcare system to respond to the crisis. Thus, coronavirus cases will be prioritized and those that are not medical emergencies will be postponed. Infectious disease hospitals will only treat Covid-19 cases. Patients with other conditions will be transferred to other medical centers. Medical professionals must find solutions to increase the spaces needed to treat patients. More medical staff will be brought, according to TVR News.

New restrictions on movement may also be imposed. New quarantine spaces will be identified. The introduction of quarantine at home, with special security measures, could also be enforced.

At this moment, those who came into contact with Covid-19 patients or come from high-risk areas are either quarantined in special centers or are asked to stay under self-isolation at home.

“This third scenario is not the most important, the most important and the hardest will be when we go - and it is very possible - in scenario four. We want to delay this as much as possible - and I mean when we exceed 1,000 patients,” said health minister Victor Costache on Friday evening, quoted by Digi24.ro.

“For the time being, even at this number of patients - almost 90 as many as we have at the moment - we still have the luxury of admitting all patients, including mild forms in hospitals and infectious diseases sections, in strict isolation, in the desire to limit the spread of this virus. We know from the mistakes of other countries, when light forms were left at home, sometimes this quarantine was not respected at home and then the virus spread faster,” he added.

He also said that Romania will probably declare a state of alert in the coming days, which would allow the authorities take quicker decisions and measures to contain the epidemic.

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos / Octav Ganea)