Magdalena Ciobanu, director general with the Ministry of Health, told a press conference on Tuesday that 178 of the 243 hospitals that treated including coronavirus patients or exclusively coronavirus patients have asked for approval to increase the number of beds for non-COVID patients.
"As the DSP informed us yesterday, out of the 243 hospitals listed in the famous Appendix 2 as hospitals that cared for patients with COVID, exclusively or not, 178 have now asked for approval to increase the number of beds for non-COVID patients," said the official.
Magdalena Ciobanu said that, in the context of the "positive evolution of the pandemic," they adopted a measure on Monday at the Ministry providing for the removal of the restriction that in hospitals the beds needs to be at least two metres apart.
"In the context of the positive evolution of the pandemic, we adopted a measure yesterday that was requested by many hospital managers, to remove the obligation to keep a distance of 2 metres between the beds in wards. (...) In reality, the managers told us that they had big problems from this point of view, so by removing this restriction, that is, we are basically going back to the previous situation, the number of patients who can be admitted to a ward will be close, if not exactly as it was before the pandemic," Ciobanu said.
According to her, the managers of medical units must increase the number of beds for COVID patients in case the infection rates will increase in maximum three days.