Rafila: Green pass, life-saving tool, yet it needs to be introduced at right time

Alexandru Rafila, who received a positive opinion from parliament's select committees for the position of Health minister, said on Wednesday that the green certificate is an instrument that saves lives, but it must be introduced at the right time, agerpres reports.

When asked about the incidence of the virus spread at which the green certificate should be waived, Rafila said: "I'll give you just one theoretical example, I have not established this, I discussed in principle with public health specialists: the introduction, for example, could be after three weeks of consecutive increases with a multiplication index higher than 1.5. The withdrawal would occur at a similar decrease, but also under an incidence, let's say, of 1 or 0.5, that is, we have to find a very low incidence, so that this does not endanger the health of the population. We must, in parallel, not give up on encouraging vaccination, because at the end of the day we have to do just that, try to explain to people that this green certificate is for protecting health, it is not an oppressive tool. The green certificate is an instrument that saves lives, but it must be introduced at the right time."

Rafila noted that lawmakers are not trying to postpone the debate on the bill on the introduction of the green certificate.

"By law, we can establish a framework and the entry into force of the certificate can be done at any time it is needed. We are not talking about a postponement, as they said, that we are postponing it for January. We can talk about a new piece of legislation, I think it should be a new piece of legislation, and then we can go with a predictable mechanism, the world knows what it is about, it is announced in advance if there are prolonged increases in transmission [of the virus - ed.n.]," doctor Rafila explained.