Former managers of the Suceava County Hospital criminally prosecuted for the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic

The former general manager and former medical director of the Suceava County Hospital are criminally prosecuted, next to other two suspects, for abuse of office and for not taking the necessary health and security measures and for foiling disease control, the Prosecutor Office upon Suceava Tribunal has announced on Thursday.

Suceava hospital and then the entire county have been the coronavirus hot zone in Romania, still ranking first on number of COVID-19 cases (more than 3,500). Suceava has also been dubbed as the “Romania’s Lombardy”.

Suceava had also the highest number of doctors and nurses infected with COVID-19.

The hospital and its former managers have been blamed for the outbreak: former general manager Vasile Rimbu, the former medical director Mircea Macovei, health care manager Dorina Chirap and doctor Catalina Zorescu, coordinator of the Infection Prevention Ward, Monitorul de Suceava reported.

In early April prosecutors opened a criminal file for foiling disease control in Suceava after the county hospital and the entire county had become the epicenter of the coronavirus cases in Romania, with hundreds of doctors, nurses and patients infected. Prosecutors argue the infections had come after the aggravated deeds of abuse of office and forgery allegedly committed by the county’s health authorities and by the former hospital management.