Romania on Monday reported the lowest single-day Covid-19-related deaths for six weeks and the fewest number of new cases in two months, but the good news was shadowed by an alarmingly high rate of positive coronavirus tests.
The Strategic Communication Group said there were about 2,500 new coronavirus, the lowest daily figure since Oct. 19, but only 7,100 tests were carried out, less than a fourth of average weekday tests. Of those, 34.5% turned up positive.
Some 87 SARS-CoV-2 patients succumbed to the virus the fewest deaths in a single day since Nov. 8. Eight-one patients had underlying health conditions such as heart disease, obesity or cancer.
One person who died was in their 20s, one was in their 40s and six in their 50s. The rest were over 60.
But while the number of deaths fell, there were still 1,255 seriously ill Covid-19 patients being treated in intensive care units, out of a total of 11,430 hospital beds occupied by coronavirus patients.
Romania has recorded almost 594,000 cases of Covid-19 so far.
Bucharest and nine counties across the country are still in the red scenario, meaning they have more than 3 cases per 1,000 inhabitants.
The county of Ilfov had the highest rate of infection with 6.73 cases per 1,000 residents, higher even than Bucharest which had 6 cases per 1,000. Bucharest posted 341 new cases in the past day, a fraction of the usual number, but a reflection of the few tests carried out.
The Black Sea county of Constanta had almost 5 cases per 1,000 and Brasov and Cluj which are in the northwest Translyvanian region had more than 4.5 cases.
There were nine counties which less than 1.5 cases per 1,000, most of them sparsely populated areas such as Harghita, a rural area of meadows and hills with few towns which is home to bears in central Romania, which had fewest Covid-19 cases in Romania.
