The number of new cases of people infected with the novel coronavirus has seen a dramatic rise in Romania from one day to another, health authorities announced on Tuesday. The number of SARS-CoV-2 infections has doubled compared to Monday. On January 4 3,900 cases of SARS-COV-2 infections have been reported in Romania, as well as 52 related deaths, with 5 occurring previously.
1,756 new COVID-19 cases have been reported in Romania on Monday, January 3, 2022, and 18 related deaths.
The last time when there were more Covid infections than today in Romania was November 16, 2021 – less over 4,100.
The infection rate is also on the rise in almost all counties, with Arad and Cluj going beyond 1 per one thousand inhabitants. The average national infection rate is up to 0.64 per 1,000, while in Bucharest it stands at 0.9 per 1,000.
Overall, there have been 1,816,956 people infected with the novel coronavirus in Romania since the beginning of the pandemic till today, January 4, 2022, with 11,745 being reinfected patients more than 6 months after the first infection. 1,745,012 patients were declared cured.
The death toll in our country surged to 58,866.
52 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, with five occurring in the previous weeks (in Buzău, Covasna, Vâlcea and Vrancea in December 2021). Among the latest victims, 22 men and 30 women, 40 were not vaccinated and 12 vaccinated. Those 12 vaccinated dead patients were aged 40 to over 80 and they all had comorbidities.
Among the recently reported 52 deaths, three were in the 40-49 age group, five in the 50-59 age group, 11 in the 60-69 age group, 18 in the 70-79 age group and 15 in patients over 80.
49 of the recently reported dead patients had comorbidities, three were reported with no other pre-existing medical condition.
2,593 Romanians infected with SARS-CoV-2 are currently hospitalized, with 390 in intensive care. Out of those 390 patients in ICU, only 33 had vaccination certificates.
Among the hospitalized Covid patients, 79 are children, with 7 in intensive care.
Health minister: We expect 800,000 infections during the 5th wave
On this background, the Minister of Health warned that 800,000 infections are expected overall during the 5th wave of the pandemic, underlining the importance of the vaccination green certificate being adopted. The later it is adopted, the less relevant its effectiveness will become, says Alexandru Rafila.
“The next few weeks will probably be decisive and we will have an answer related to this certificate. The later it is introduced in the evolution of a pandemic wave, the less its usefulness decreases,” Alexandru Rafila told Antena 3 TV. The minister also said that it is expected that in wave 5 we will have a double number of cases, compared to wave 4, when a total of 400,000 diseases were confirmed. “In wave 4 we had about 400,000 confirmed diseases, by diagnosis. How many diseases we will have in wave 5 remains to be seen – we probably estimate a doubling of the number of cases in this wave,” said Rafila.
If the vaccine stops transmission why would a vaccinated need to wear a mask?