Romania has added a record 3,130 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, but deaths dropped to 44, about half of the previous day.
The Strategic Communication Group said that a record 30,191 tests were carried out in the last 24 hours giving a ’positivity rate of ‘ 10.37%, about the same rate as Wednesday.
Romania has seen a spike in cases in the last fortnight and authorities have introduced new restrictions in the capital, such as shutting restaurants and casinos, where cases have soared to over 500 a day for four days of the past week. Religious festivals and other restrictions have also been rolled out in the northeast Iasi region which has reported a sharp rise in cases.
Authorities on Thursday imposed local lockdowns in the capital, which posted 549 new cases on Thursday, and seven counties where there were high case numbers to try and rein in the virus.
Asked why Romania didn’t increase testing, resident Klaus Iohannis said Wednesday that even if testing had risen since the beginning of the pandemic, there was a limit to testing capacity because of a lack of qualified personnel.
The cumulative number of cases in Romania on Thursday climbed to 145,700 of which 113,112 patients have recovered.
Reflecting the rise in cases, authorities said there were 607 patients in intensive care, slightly less than the previous day. There are about 8,500 patients with Covid-19 in Romanian hospitals.
Six regions reported more than 100 cases on Thursday. Bucharest had the most as usual, and Iasi had a record 190 new infections.
The day’s death count stood at 44, compared to Wednesday’s all-time high of 82. Twenty-eight men and 16 women with Covid-19 succumbed to the virus. All the patients had preexisting health conditions.
One patient who died was in their 40s, two were in their 50s, ten were in their 60s, 19 were older than 70 and 12 were patients older than 80.
There are currently about 21,300 people in self isolation, either at home or in institutionalized isolation.
