The doctors and nurses working at the Suceava County Hospital, the biggest Covid-19 hotspot in Romania, will be placed under institutionalized quarantine, general-major Ionel Oprea, a state secretary with the Health Ministry, told Monitorul de Suceava on Monday, April 6.

The health workers will no longer be allowed to go home and will receive accommodation in the student campus of the Ștefan cel Mare University. Those turning down the measure can resign or enter technical unemployment, he said.

“Starting today, we will introduce the institutionalized quarantine for the health workers at the hospital. Those who refuse the measure have the option of technical unemployment or of the suspension of their work contracts. We will look at every case individually as there are cases with strong reasons against remaining in quarantine. A commission will analyze every request but I want to say that we cannot and we will not force anyone to enter the institutionalized quarantine,” Oprea told Monitorul de Suceava.

One cycle of institutionalized quarantine amounts to 14 days. An increasing number of health workers are expected to recover from the Covid-19 infection over this period, thus returning to work.

Suceava and eight neighboring localities were placed under lockdown last week after the County Hospital there became the biggest Covid-19 hotspot in the country. The hospital had last week the highest number of infected doctors and nurses in Romania – about 200 and the highest number of deaths due to Covid-19. A military doctor was brought in to manage the County Hospital in Suceava after the previously appointed management resigned on Wednesday evening, April 1.

(Photo: Spitalul Judetean Suceava Facebook Page)

editor@romania-insider.com