Head of the Department for Emergency Situations (DSU) Raed Arafat said on Thursday that he did not believe that Bucharest City and Ilfov County will be locked down because of COVID-19, as proposed by the National Institute of Public Health (INSP).
"If it comes to a lockdown, locking down Romania's capital city must be done at a much higher level of decision than just a proposal from INSP, because the impact is much more complex than just the health aspect. Clearly, there are measures that are necessary to be implemented, some of them are necessary to limit contact, travel, spread of the virus (...), but locking Bucharest down means that we would isolate Bucharest and Ilfov from the rest of Romania," Arafat told Antena 3 private broadcaster.
He said the lockdown is not possible without a decision of the National Committee for Emergency Situations. At this time, as the memo is sent to me, the order could be issued in accordance with the law and validated by the National Committee for Emergency Situations within 48 hours. We are still within 48 hours. I have called on the technical and scientific group to convene tomorrow for a discussion on this topic, after which we will, however, ask the National Committee for Emergency Situations for a decision on whether or not such an order can be issued. As far as I am concerned, we will not get to locking Bucharest City and Ilfov County down under the current circumstances," said Arafat.
In his view, additional measures to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus may be considered, but without implementing area code lockdowns.
The head of DSU mentioned that the question is whether locking down Bucharest and Ilfov is feasible or not, given that the Ministry of Interior has to get involved, not the Ministry of Defence, because this is not a state of emergency.
According to Arafat, the lockdown would involve isolating the area from the rest of the country, with the impact being "much more serious" than in the case of a small town.
He is of the opinion that checking the existing control measures need to be strengthened and an analysis needs to be made of whether there are other measures that can be implemented to contain the spread of COVID-19.