Amid a spike in coronavirus cases, Romania’s health minister says patients with Covid-19 who don’t have any symptoms will be monitored by family doctors in order to reduce overcrowding in hospitals.
Health Minister Nelu Tataru said on Sunday asymptomatic patients would stay at home under medical monitoring after the number of patients with SARS-CoV-2 rose to 9,112 on Sunday. There are 628 patients with the virus being treated in intensive care units, the second highest daily figure ever.
The minister said patients with pre-existent health conditions, such as diabetes, cancer or heart disease would be hospitalized until a doctor decided they could be discharged,
Romania has maximum capacity of 12,000 beds for SARS-CoV-2 patients and 1,050 beds in intensive care units.
Romania has seen a surge in cases in the last fortnight, posting daily figures of around 3,000 for the past five days. Even with substantially reduced testing levels over the weekend, some 2,880 new cases were added on Sunday.
There are twelve regions with more than 1.5 cases per 1,000 inhabitants. The capital, Bucharest is the worst with 2.52 cases per 1,000 residents followed by the Alba region in central Romania which has a rate of 2.26 and Valcea, also central Romania, where there are 2.16 cases of the virus for every 1,000 people.
Romania reported 53 Covid-19 related deaths on Sunday, including a four-year-old child who was already suffering from previous health problems.
Romania has already ordered Covid-19 10.9 million vaccines when one becomes available and will receive 1.29 million as a first batch, authorities say.
