HealthMin Tataru: If needed, we can place an entire locality under quarantine during state of alert

Minister of Health Nelu Tataru on Tuesday told Digi 24 private television broadcaster that the establishment of the state of alert is needed in order to have "the levers" at hand to place an entire locality under quarantine if there is a large number of inhabitants infected with the SARS-CoV-2 there, and also to be able to move the medical personnel. "Sometimes, if needed, based on these measures during the state of alert we can place an entire village, an entire locality under quarantine. Without it [the state of alert - editor's note], we cannot. We wouldn't have the legal framework and the levers to solve these things. At the same time, if we want to move the medical personnel from a hospital to another when we still have active outbreaks in the hospitals, we won't be able to," explained Tataru. He also said that the extension of the state of alert is needed in order to have the countermeasures prepared after taking the relaxation measures. "We are prolonging the state of alert by 30 days. (...) We watch the development of the pandemic every day, every week. (...) And we must find an institutional instrument at all times in order to be able to have the countermeasures prepared after taking the relaxation measures. When we manage a relaxation measure we take some risks, for the cautions or social distancing rules might not be observed. At the same time, we need some isolation measures. We consider each case at a time, each investigation at a time. If there is an outbreak, then we will isolate it," said the Minister of Health. AGERPRES (RO - author: Roberto Stan, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - author: Cristina Zaharia)