Nine more cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Romania on Thursday, with toll climbing up to 59.
The last six cases are from Hunedoara, including three medical professionals, infected by the woman from Petrosani who returned from Italy and left the home isolation and strolled through the county for a week. The 26yo young woman was even admitted to two hospitals without saying she had just returned from a red zone in Italy.
All those six people who tested positive for coronavirus got in contact with the 26yo woman, who has now a criminal file: a 58yo woman, patient at one of the hospitals where the young woman was admitted, a 7yo woman-patient, a 52yo woman-patient, a 45yo woman, medical professional, self-isolate at home, a 53yo woman, medical professional, self-isolate at home, a 45yo woman, professional professional, self-isolate at home.
A previously confirmed case a 54-year-old woman from Neamt recently returned from Italy. She was admitted to the County Hospital in Roman with coughing, fever and pharyngitis.
The second case confirmed Thursday was is a 45-year-old woman who returned from Italy and who is in quarantine in Arad.
The first case diagnosed today was a woman from Bucharest, indirect contact of the retired police officer admitted at Gerota Hospital on 5 March and who tested positive for coronavirus while he was admitted there.
18 new cases of Coronavirus have been confirmed on Wednesday, which rises the toll to 47. Most of the cases, 21 out of 47, are in Bucharest.
The last cases confirmed on Wednesday are a 63-year-old woman, contact of the 35yo woman who traveled to Israel and returned to Romania o February 29 and a 48-year-old man in Bucharest, direct contact of the son of the former police officer initially admitted to Gerota hospital and who has hidden he traveled abroad.
Other previous cases detected on Wednesday are five men aged 22, 30, 35, 36 and 57 arrived in Romania from Italy on March 9. They have been in quarantine in Arad since then, immediately after they crossed the border.
Previously today tests came out positive for a 54-year-old woman from Bucharest, who got in contact with the the retired officer from Gerota hospital, a 47-year-old man from Bucharest who traveled to Stuttgart during February 26-March 2 and who is now admitted at Matei Bals hospital (he had symptoms since March 6), a 56-year-old man who traveled to Israel during February 22-29. He presented symptoms last night and his condition has aggravated and was admitted at the Intensive Care Unit at Victor Babes Hospital for Infectious Diseases.
Other cases confirmed today: a 55-year-old man from Bucharest, contact of the retired officer from Gerota hospital (no symptoms yet), a 31-year-old man from Bucharest, under isolation, a 53yo woman from Covasna, who arrived from Italy on March 8, currently isolated at home,
The first case confirmed today was a 43-year-old woman, doctor at Gerota Hospital, who got in contact with the 60yo retired officer initially admitted there.
The second case today was a 42-yo man from Iasi, returned from Venice, while the third case is also from Iasi, a 38-year-old man, contact of a confirmed case in Warsaw. The 38yo man from Iasi has been in isolation since March 9.
Four other people had been confirmed with coronavirus in Romania on Tuesday night, a woman from Bucharest, and three patients from Arad, Caras-Severin and Hunedoara.
The last case confirmed yesterday is a 47-year-old woman from Bucharest, contact of the patient who was admitted at Gerota Hospital, retired officer who got infected in Israel.
The Bucharest School Inspectorate reported that the woman’s daughter, who studies at School no 56 in Bucharest had attended classes until Tuesday, although her mother was admitted to Matei Bals Hospital. The girl is currently in quarantine with her grandparents at home. The woman is in good condition for nwo, with no symptoms. A first test came out negative on the girl.
Another patient is a 57-year-old man from Arad who returned from Italy yesterday and who is under quarantine now. There also a 26-year-old woman from Hunedoara, and a 37yo man admitted in hospital at Resita, who is contact of a previous person confirmed with Covid-19 in this city.
The 60yo man from Bucharest, the retired officer working at the District 4 Public Domain Direction, risks a criminal file for false testimonies and for not complying with the quarantine rules, as initially he did not admit he has been in a foreign country recently.
It was revealed that the man had traveled to Israel, where he probably got infected, returned to Romania, went to work, got in contact with almost 100 people, felt sick and went to Gerota hospital without telling doctors he had been out of the country. As his situation worsened, doctors run a test for Covid-19 on him and the test came out positive and then they got him transferred to the Matei Bals Infectious Disease Hospital. Worse than that, the man had already infected his son, his pregnant daughter-in-law and his 3yo grandson.
Sources told mass media that the retired officer’s son is working at the National Intelligence Service (SRI). According to a press release issued by SRI this evening, one of his officers tested positive for coronavirus, but it does not mention if this is the same person with the retired police officer’s son.
Seven of the patients have been declared cured and already discharged. Authorities call on citizens to get information only from official and reliable sources.
WHO declares coronavirus pandemic
Meanwhile, in a latest announcement, the World Health Organization has declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, acknowledging that the virus will likely spread to all countries on the globe.
Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the situation will worsen.
“We expect to see the number of cases, the number of deaths, and the number of affected countries climb even higher,” said Tedros.
As of Wednesday, 114 countries have reported that 118,000 have contracted Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, known as SARS-CoV2. In the United States, where for weeks state and local laboratories could not test for the virus, just over 1,000 cases have been diagnosed and 29 people have died. But authorities here warn continuing limits on testing mean the full scale of spread in this country is not yet known.
The second scenario phase in Romania
As the number of the infected people exceeds 25, Romania will enter the second scenario of response to coronavirus. It means there are some additional measures in store regarding the medical responses.
“Second scenario means a stage of sporadic spread in the community, so we are far from what is happening in Italy, Germany, France or Spain”, said the Health minister, Victor Costache.
So, if the first scenario involves 0 to 25 cases of coronavirus, the second one means the cases range from 26 to 100 people. The next scenario – 101 to 2,000 cases and the worst scenario is when over 2,001 people test positive for the new virus Covid-19.
The Health officials, explained that according to the second scenario, the epidemiological inquiries will be extended, for each of these cases have contacts, so they spread the virus to more people.
“We expect to set up special sections for coronavirus inside hospitals, we expect to limit certain surgeries that are not absolutely necessary (…) and we expect to a more tightened border control also for the other countries that are not in the red or yellow zone at the moment,” explained Health state secretary Nelu Tătaru.
PM asks for quick plan to rise the number of epidemiologists
Prime Minister-interim Ludovic Orban has asked the Minister of Health to come up with a quick plan to increase the number of epidemiologists, while underscoring that the risk of a coronavirus spread can be significantly mitigated if epidemiological investigations are being carried out faster.
“Increase the number of doctors involved in epidemiological investigations, find solutions with the 20 graduates who do not currently have jobs. We have epidemiologists who do not have jobs, we need epidemiologists like air. They need to be involved, we need to find solutions, to sign collaboration agreements and find a way to hire epidemiologists. Also, we need to get other categories of physicians involved, who have the ability to carry out such investigations. (…) So we need to increase the numbers and I understood from the Minister of Defence has also mobilized his staff of epidemiologists who, from the area of defence, can be involved and, basically, you have an immediate system of involvement for the conduct of the epidemiological investigations. This can truly and significantly decrease the risk of spreading, as we will be able to conductepidemiological investigations quickly in order to detect people who came in contact with the ones who, in their turn, came in contact with a person who tested positive,” said the premier.