Romania’s government may ban or severely restrict the number of people at wedding parties, baptisms and birthday parties after a spike in coronavirus cases in the past fortnight.
On Tuesday, the National Committee for Emergency Situations made a series of recommendations based on the current situation with the pandemic, which has seen about 3,000 daily cases in the past week.
The harshest proposal was a ban on private events with a large number of participants, such as weddings, christenings and festive events across the country regardless of the number of coronavirus cases in any area.
The government will decide what new restrictions to add at a meeting later Wednesday. It is likely to extend the current state of alert for another month. It will also decide on weddings and parties.
Weddings and baptisms are sometimes attended by more than 100 guests in Romania and are seen as a hotspot for infection during the pandemic.
The restrictions should apply to indoor and outdoor events, and is a result of people failing to follow social distancing and health rules during weddings and baptisms, the head of the emergency services, Raed Arafat said.
In places where there are high number of cases, more than 3 cases per 1,000 people, masks should be mandatory in all outdoor places, authorities said
The committee however proposed easing restrictions on restaurants, theaters, bars and cafes, allowing them to operate in places where there are fewer than 3 Covid-19 cases per 1,000 inhabitants in the last fortnight.
Restaurants and theaters in places with fewer than 1.5 new cases per 1,000 inhabitants, should be able to operate at half their capacity, and, while in places where there are between 1.5 to 3 new cases per 1,000 inhabitants, they can operate at 30% of their capacity.
Authorities also updated the list of countries in the “yellow zone” where travelers have to enter quarantine as they have a higher concentration of virus cases than Romania.
Austria, Denmark, Hungary and Ukraine have been removed from the list as they have fewer cases than Romania.
