More than 770 children in Romania have tested positive for Covid-19, two weeks after schools reopened, the health minister said Thursday.
Health Minister Nelu Tataru said 276 children were infants to nine years old, while 495 were aged 10 to 19.
Mr. Tataru said September was “a hard month” for health authorities amid a spike in coronavirus cases.
As well as the reopening of most schools, restaurants and cinemas reopened six months after they were closed during a state of emergency in March. People also returned from vacations, leading to more infections.
In the past two days, Romania has reported record numbers of Covid-19.
Even if hundreds of youngsters have tested positive for the virus, the minister said that teens generally didn’t have symptoms.
He confirmed that Romania had entered a second wave of coronavirus infections, adding that if people respected restrictions, daily cases should fall to around 1,500, down from more than 2,000 in the past two days.
Authorities are concerned there may be a spike after municipal elections last weekend, but hope that cases will start to taper off in mid-October.
On Thursday, authorities said there were 557 patients in intensive care units of which are 176 are on ventilators, he said.
Romania reported 2,086 new cases on Thursday.
The cumulative total stands at 129, 658 cases.
