President Klaus Iohannis has announced on Monday that the state of emergency in Romania will be extended by one more month in the efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic. Iohannis said that Romania had not reached the peak of the epidemic yet, and thus “it is no time for us to get relaxed”.
The President has first declared state of emergency until April 16 and now, it will be extended by 30 more days, meaning until mid-May. The procedure needs the Parliament’s go-ahead.
The head of state also announced “a good news”, as protective equipment starts coming in the country. According to Iohannis, Romania will receive 2.5 million surgical masks for doctors and nurses, 5 million masks for the police force and around 8 million masks for the population.
Besides the masks, 500,000 protective jumpsuits are arriving.
“Comparing to other countries, the rise of the people affected by the epidemic has not been so high, as in other countries such as Italy or Spain. This is due to the fact that we have taken firm measures in due time. It is not time to get relaxed though, to not observe the rules anymore. All specialists say that if we respect measures it is possible for us to not have such a high increase of COVID0-19 cases. If we do not respect isolation rules it’s possible to face scenarios like the one in Italy or Spain. We are not at the peak of the outbreak yet. We have to be careful, not to panic but to observe the rules.”
As a conclusion, the President said the state of emergency will be extended by one more month in Romania. “We’ll draft the decree for the extension this week“, he said, also announcing that Romania will send a team of doctors and nurses to Italy, in Milan region.
“We also had a discussion about the way Romania must show its solidarity for others and we decided that Romania wills end a team of physicians and nurses in Italy. They will go to Milan region, they will leave tomorrow at the latest- 11 doctors and six nurses”, Iohannis explained.
Budget rectification
President Iohannis has also stated that a complicated situation of the budget is ahead and the authorities are preparing a budget rectification.
“With this epidemic we have not only a public healthcare crisis, but also a crisis of the budget. A significant increase of the budgetary deficit will be needed. More money is needed in the public health system and social assistance. It is clear this complicated situation of the budget is not going to solve by itself. The Government will need to make an assessment, as all declining incomes and growing expenses will need t be re-estimated,” the head of state pointed out.