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The restrictions will be relaxed under certain conditions and we must have at least two steps, and if in the next period the number of intensive care beds drops to 900, some restrictions could be considered to be lifted, such as wearing a mask in public or increasing the occupancy rate in restaurants and theatre rooms, the Health Minister Alexandru Rafila said on Thursday, at a debate organised by the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Tourism at the Tourism Fair, in Bucharest's Romexpo exhibition centre.
"The restrictions will be relaxed under certain conditions and we must have at least two relaxation steps. I'll give you an example, which is not a really imaginary example, it also resulted from discussions with various colleagues in the area of public health. You noticed that when we talked about schools we gave up on the premises. We no longer linked the operation of the schools to the precincts, but we linked it to the occupancy of the places in the hospitals. Why? Everywhere it has been observed that this Omicron strain produces many cases, but relatively few admissions and relatively little to intensive care. In Romania it wasn't quite like that, we had quite a lot of admissions, we had an occupancy rate in intensive care up to about 65 pct, about 1,200 of the 1,800 beds were occupied. And now we're trying to apply the same algorithm to relaxations. That is, if the number of beds occupied in intensive care decreases by half, that is, 900 beds... we are not far away. Did I have a reluctance to take action because of what? Because in intensive care, although the number of cases was decreasing, in intensive care it remained about the same, we always had about 1,100 beds occupied. And now, for two days now, we've seen a more consistent drop. If this trend continues in the next period and we reach 900 beds, now we have a minimum of over 1,000, we can consider lifting some restrictions," Rafila explained.
Among the restrictions that could be lifted, the minister mentioned the use of the protective mask in open spaces, "we will continue to recommend that the mask be used in crowded spaces, but we will recommend this, it will no longer be an obligation", or other relaxations that have a direct impact on economic activity, such as the abandonment of time limits, access to the big stores, to the malls, "one of the favourite places where Romanians spend their weekends", or the increase of the occupancy limit in restaurants, performance halls from 30 pct to 50 pct, Agerpres.ro informs.
"Yet we need to have two steps. Why's that? We do not want to return to a situation where we are reintroducing restrictions. This for the economy is devastating, because these rapid cycles of closure, opening and again closure lead to a lack of predictability and to very high economic losses, they have employees who go into furlough, they have to pay them, the stocks of goods.... I have to have sustainability. Then I take a first set of measures, and I've given some examples, not if they're going to be identical, they're not a commitment, but they're rational things that can be taken into account, and then, if we see that the situation has stabilized, it hasn't gotten worse, the downward trend continues, we move on to the next set of easing measures that can be equivalent to the normal resumption of economic and social activity, including in the field of tourism or in the field of organizing events," said Alexandru Rafila.
