Coronavirus/ UPDATE Iohannis: Work done rapidly to expand hospital capacity

President Klaus Iohannis stated, on Tuesday, that work is underway to expand hospital capacity, announcing that approximately 300 ventilators and a first batch of rapid tests will be delivered in the coming period. "There is some good news in this area. For instance, there are approximately 300 ventilators that are being delivered in the coming days and through this the capacity of intensive care units will be extended. In less than a week the first batch of 3 million rapid tests will arrive, which are already ordered, and in order to come in support of patients with more severe forms, there are already approximately 500 oxygen concentrators being installed. There is work being done, there is work being done rapidly to expand the capacity of hospitals, in order to receive the sick," said the head of state at the Cotroceni Palace. The head of state emphasized the need for "maximum concentration on managing the pandemic." "Even if we had elections, even if the attention has moved, for a few days, to something else, the pandemic has not disappeared and even if we still have a relatively limited number of new infections, we can easily observe that, for example, today, we had over 200 deaths. The Intensive Care units are under a lot of pressure, hospitals in general, and we are determined that all these matters continue to be well managed, until a new government is formed that takes over and continues this management," said Iohannis. He also emphasized the necessity to respect health measures. "Our role, the role of the rest of us, is to continue to protect ourselves, to protect others, in order to give a chance to medics, the medical staff to deal with patients with difficult problems. I will continue to remain connected to this area and we already have the important steps made in preparing the vaccination campaign, but about this - more in the coming days," said the head of state. President Iohannis had a working session regarding the managing of the COVID-19 epidemic and the vaccination campaign with interim Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca, Health Minister Nelu Tataru, the head of the Department for Emergency Situations, Raed Arafat, and the chairman of the National Committee to coordinate the activities regarding the vaccination against SARS-CoV-2, Valeriu Gheorghita. AGERPRES (RO - author: Florentina Peia, editor: Florin Marin; EN - author: Razvan-Adrian Pandea, editor: Simona Iacob)