COVID-19 has also returned to Romania, just like in other countries, with the number of cases increasing to about 2,000 per day, health minister Alexandru Rafila said on September 14. However, he believes the new wave will peak in a week or two, and then the number of cases will start to drop.

“It also returned to Romania, as it did in other countries. At the moment, we have about 2,000 cases a day. The forms are not as serious as in previous waves,” Rafila told Europa FM, according to News.ro.

Amid the rise in cases, some hospitals in major urban communities may get crowded, the minister also said, adding that this has already happened in two of Bucharest’s hospitals for infectious diseases.

“There are two hospitals for infectious diseases, as you well know, Balş and Babeş, that got crowded. We will also discuss with colleagues from the other emergency hospitals tomorrow morning so that we can ensure hospitalization in case the number of patients increases,” Alexandru Rafila said.

“My opinion is that this wave will last for about one or two weeks, after which the number of cases will begin to decrease. This higher transmissibility of the virus or the current variant leads to this large number of cases, but not only in Romania. I repeat, the same thing happens everywhere,” he added.

According to the latest report from the Ministry of Health, Romania registered 7,171 new COVID-19 cases in the September 4-10 week, up from 4,772 in the week before. In total, the country had more than 3.42 million cases of infection.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/George Calin)