Gov't to pass decision to extend state of alert without any new restrictions

The government is expected today to approve a draft decision regarding the extension of the state of alert related to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, with Prime Minister Ludovic Orban saying that, practically, no new restrictions will be introduced and "the same regulations" will be kept in place.

"We have the draft to extend the state of alert in Romania and the measures that are applied during it to prevent and combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. (...) Basically, we do not introduce any new restrictions, we keep the same regulations in place," Orban said at the beginning of the government meeting.

Senior emergency management official Raed Arafat said the draft followed the entire legal procedure.

"We have followed the entire legal procedure, we had meetings with the technical-scientific group and, together with the National Centre for Command and Management of Interventions, a note of substantiation, motivation has been drafted about why the alert should be extended and the measures to be implemented, and the draft decision has been approved within CNSU; we are going to submit it to Parliament for final approval," said Arafat.

He said that the text on isolation and quarantine had been removed from its original form in Annex 3.

The text will be reintroduced after the adoption of a law on isolation and quarantine, Orban said.

"Pending the law being passed, we will have to remove from the annex 3 - the text about isolation and quarantine, and introduce it immediately after the entry into force of the law; we will hold an extraordinary government meeting. There is a certain legal basis in Law 55 Article 5 only that in the ruling of the Constitutional Court there is a reference to the procedures by which the decisions of isolation and quarantine are made. And there is no discussion on this matter. I prefer to wait for the vote on the law, its promulgation by the president, publication in the Official Journal, its entry into force, and we will immediately hold a government meeting to reintroduce to Annex 3 the measure of isolation and quarantine," said Orban.