President Iohannis calls easing lockdown restrictions stepped process

Easing the coronavirus lockdown restrictions after Romania moves from a state of emergency to a state of alert will be done "step by step," by intervals of about two weeks, President Klaus Iohannis said on Monday. "Many ask me, 'Well, what's going to happen next?' And I want to say from the outset is that the so-called easing will be done step by step, with such a step usually taking about two weeks, so we will take some measures from May 15, but the next raft of relaxation measures will probably come at the beginning of June, then in the middle of June and so on," Iohannis explained at a news briefing at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace. He pointed out that, from May 15, the state of alert will be established, from when wearing a face mask in enclosed public spaces and on public transport becomes mandatory. "Once again, and I will repeat a few more times, we will all wear a face mask when we are in enclosed public spaces, also when we travel by public transport. Those things remain mandatory, " Iohannis showed. At the same time, he pointed out that even under a state of alert "gatherings of more than three people in public are still forbidden." "That obviously applies when we go for outdoor exercise, as well" he added. From May 15, said Iohannis, beauty salons, dental offices and museums will open with special conditions of physical distancing, and hygiene in place. From then on, bona fide declarations to travel locally will no longer be needed, but "essentially travel will be restricted to local travel," Iohannis added. "Essentially travel will be restricted locally. But there are some exceptions. Travel can be extended for example on business purposes, for medical reasons or for individual sports, for cycling outside the locality, so individual sports will be allowed," he said, noting that travel restrictions will not be eased in quarantined areas. Professional athletes will be allowed to train at training camps after the state of emergency ends, but sports competitions still cannot be organised. "Professional athletes will be allowed, under special conditions to be detailed by specialists, to train at training camps, but they will not restart sports competitions until after a sufficiently long period of training. So, professional athletes, beware. Training camps do not reopen for amateurs," Iohannis also showed. AGERPRES (RO - author: Oana Ghita, editor: Georgiana Tanasescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)