Group of people from Italy on their way to Constanta, Ploiesti, halted before entering Bucharest

A group of people on cars entering Romania on the western border has been halted before entering Bucharest to calm traffic in the city, but they will continue their road trip to Constanta and Prahova, acting Interior Minister Marcel Vela told B1Tv private broadcaster on Wednesday.

"At the entrance to Bucharest, there is indeed a convoy halted that started from the West, from the border there, and now it is divided in two directions - some are bounded for Prahova and some for Constanta. Rigourous movement in Bucharest has to be secured, that is to say the cars in the convoy should get in a compact movement and the rush of 18:00hrs-19:00hrs will not be allowed, so traffic in Bucharest is expected to calm down a little, so that the cars will move safely. The cars will not stop over in Bucharest, that is why they stopped at the entrance to the city, and the convoy will move compactly to Constanta and Ploiesti and stop over in Ialomita," said Vela.

He explained that there was a video conference with the prefects on Tuesday night to be informed about convoys forming at the border, so that people would be picked and brought to quarantine centres in the destination counties.

"We had information that there will traffic jams at the entrances to Romania; we were prepared to accommodate the citizens coming from the red areas of Italy, to be introduced to the accommodation centres in the western counties, in particular, motivating that such quarantine would be safer, in that citizens coming from Italy would not go all over the country freely. The decision we made last night was also at the request of the people (...) we organised these escorted convoys, accompanied by the Police and the Gendarmerie, (...) the citizens did not have access to public places, shopping malls, cities," said Vela.