Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said on Thursday that, according to up-to-date data, the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in Romania seems to have been stopped by the measures taken by the authorities, after initial fears - in the three weeks before the enforcement of the new Law on Isolation and Quarantine - of a geometric progression of infections.
Orban was asked if the government is considering more restrictive measures, given that the number of COVID-19 infections remains high, with 1,345 new cases on Thursday.
"Compared to 1,356 last Thursday, that's what I wanted to tell you. According to data, we seem to have stopped the rise. The biggest risk was that at some point, growth would no longer be linear, but would have a trend in geometric progression, due to the fact that - I remind you - for a period of three weeks we had no legal leverage to take any action related to people who tested positive and people who came in contact with positive, diagnosed people," Orban stressed.
According to the prime minister, there were tens of thousands of Romanians on whom the authorities, during that period, did not have the legal leverage to institute any measures.
"Look: at present, we have almost 30,000 Romanians who are either in isolation or quarantined, being infected and the doctor has agreed for them to be treated at home, or who are contacts of infected people. Think about it: if the law had not been passed, these 30,000 people in isolation or in quarantine would have traveled without any restriction in society and could have infected others. This is what happened for three weeks," added Ludovic Orban.
On Thursday, the prime minister attended the wreath-laying ceremony at the Statue of the Miner in the "Carol Schreter" Central Park in Petrosani.