Health Minister: Peak of COVID-19 epidemic in Romania could be estimated in 10 days

Health Minister Victor Costache believes that in 10 days it will be possible to estimate the peak of the COVID-19 epidemic on Romanian territory.

"I believe that we will be able to answer in a week, 10 days to this question (regarding the peak of the epidemic - e.n.). It's very important to analyze the development in the days to come, in order to make a prediction in this sense. There are pre-hospital measures, all these social distancing measures, in order to reduce the number of infections and, in parallel, we are fortifying hospitals in order to increase the capacity to receive patients with COVID-19," said Costache in an interview granted to private television broadcaster Digi24.

Victor Costache says that one of the factors that will influence the estimates will be the flow of Romanians returning to Romania, given that, at this time, over 80 pct of the COVID-19 patients are from among their ranks.

The Health Minister mentioned that, when the number of patients infected with the novel coronavirus surpasses 4,000, the lighter cases will be treated at home.

In what regards quarantine spaces, Victor Costache stated that there is a race against the clock to identify them, one of the resources that will be exploited being represented by the hotels that are closing in this period.

"In regards to quarantine spaces, it's a race against the clock that the colleagues with the Ministry of Internal Affairs are conducting. Each day additional hotels are identified and, through the measure that was taken, to close hotels, more and more of them will become quarantine spaces. They are not being requisitioned, payments are made for each person in quarantine," said the Health Minister.