Romania’s police chief says more than 40,000 people from Italy and 2,500 from China have entered the country in the past three weeks.
Ioan Buda said of those 34,000 were Romanian citizens and 3,000 Italians. The 2,500 Chinese citizens came from the mainland, Hong Kong and Macau, he said.
There are 52 cases of people in quarantine and more than 11,000 are in self-isolation at home, who can’t be monitored, authorities say.
There are currently 25 cases of COVID-19 in Romania. Five of those have recovered.
The virus, known as COVID-19, has now infected close to 113,000 people worldwide and resulted in more than 4,000 deaths. The majority of these cases are in mainland China, where the outbreak first emerged, but the rate of infection has been slowing in the country, and the situation stabilizing. Italy’s coronavirus death toll jumped from 366 to 463 on Monday. It is the worst-hit country after China.
People arriving from China and Italy are asked to self-quarantine. Buda said 19 people were facing criminal charges for breaking quarantine rules. Most people are being investigated for making false statements, by not declaring they came from a region that was in lockdown, or by giving a wrong address.
