With Romania in a state of alert for 18 months now, all the measures to be taken, including the use of the COVID green certificate, must have well defined timeframes because they cannot be kept in place "indefinitely", Social Democrat deputy Alexandru Rafila declared on Thursday.
"We have been in a state of alert for 18 months now. Throughout this period, the epidemiological situation has varied wildly, things in summer were very different from what is happening now. All these measures, the use of the green certificate included, must be very well defined in time because we cannot keep the state of alert state indefinitely - we must stop at some point, and when things return to normal we must instil into the population the habit to observe certain measures that don't necessarily require regulation through the state of alert. The participatory contribution we proposed today was, in fact, the first topic of discussion, the participation in the decision-making process of representatives of either the private milieu or trade unions, because they are the ones who must support this process," Rafila explained after the PSD - PNL round of negotiations on the Health chapter of the future governing program.
Asked if state-supported Covid testing for a period of two months would be a solution for the population to get used to the workplace Covid green pass, Rafila said: "This is a solution for just a limited period of time. This is happening or has happened in many EU countries. We found ourselves all of a sudden at the height of the pandemic, with extremely high pressure on the population, not just hospitals, and the threat of hasty action, including for medical workers who are essential for providing health care. This must stop, and discrimination must also stop, we must encourage testing. Of course, encouraging testing doesn't mean that everyone can get tested indefinitely with an indefinite frequency. The number of tests will be clearly set," said Rafila, who underscored that vaccination is the only solution to prevent a 5th wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.