There are about 8,000 Romanians who live in the Italian towns that have been placed under quarantine due to the coronavirus outbreak, while some 200,000 live in the two risk regions, Lombardia and Veneto, Romania’s prime minister Ludovic Orban said on Monday evening, February 24, at Digi 24 news channel.

Given that there is such a big community of Romanians living in these regions, the risk that the coronavirus spreads to Romania is high. However, there hasn’t been any case of coronavirus infection in Romania or among the Romanians living in Italy, PM Orban said.

He urged Romanians not to travel to Italy and those living in Italy not to come to Romania unless really necessary, to prevent the virus from spreading to our country. He also asked Romanian citizens in Italy to respect the decisions and recommendations they receive from the Italian authorities.

“I appeal to Romanians in the isolated areas to avoid travels. If they can, they should not come to the country, it’s an act of responsibility. If they have been to a place with a risk of contamination with the coronavirus, they risk exposing their friends and relatives to the virus as well. There are some who leave just because they fear the virus and believe that if they come to Romania they will be protected,” Orban said, according to Mediafax.

The prime minister also told Romanians to be calm and inform themselves from official sources, and follow the communications issued by the institutions directly involved in managing this crisis. The Romanian authorities have announced several measures to prevent a coronavirus outbreak in the country, which include placing those who come from risk areas under quarantine for 14 days.

Romania has 16 airports and 21 points of entry into the country on the western border. Passengers coming to the country through airports can, theoretically, be better controlled, although there are more than 170 flights a week from and to Italy. In the case of the land border, the Border Police has been instructed to request the identity papers of those entering, including documents from Italy, to see if they come from risk areas or quarantined localities. If they come from these localities, they must be quarantined for 14 days in state centers, and if they come from the risk regions, they will be in isolation at home. Romania currently has about 4,000 places for institutionalized quarantine, the PM said.

However, it is very difficult for the Border Police to check if those who enter the country by car come from Italy or elsewhere, the PM admitted, asking the citizens to be responsible about this.

The local media reported about a group of 300 Romanians from a village in Suceava county, in North-Eastern Romania, who returned to the country from Italy, to run from the coronavirus outbreak. They reportedly entered the country by car and bus saying that they came from Germany, according to Adevarul.

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Gov.ro)