Health minister Alexandru Rafila expects Romania to register another “spectacular growth” in COVID-19 infections in the coming period, with possible new daily records estimated for next week.

This week, the number of new COVID-19 cases almost doubled in a single day - from 19,685 on January 25 to 34,255 on January 26 (which was also a record daily count for Romania since the start of the pandemic).

The daily count remained high on January 27 - 31,683 new cases. However, according to estimates quoted by minister Rafila, the figure will most likely drop over the weekend when fewer tests are performed. Then, the number is expected to grow again, to possibly new record highs.

“There will be another spectacular growth next week,” Alexandru Rafila said, quoted by Hotnews.ro. According to him, the daily COVID cases could jump to over 40,000.

The health minister also said Romania’s testing capacity has increased, with more than 100,000 PCR and rapid COVID-19 tests being performed daily over the past two days.

A total of over 2.11 million COVID-19 cases were recorded in Romania by January 27, and about 1.87 million patients have recovered.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/George Calin)