PM Citu: Number of tests is not only indicator for decision-making, things are getting better

The number of tests and positive results of COVID-19 does not represent the only indicator taken into account when adopting decisions, said Wednesday Prime minister Florin Citu, mentioning that persons admitted to the Intensive Care Unit or phone calls made to single number 112 indicate an improvement regarding the situation of the pandemic. The clarifications were made during a press conference, where the Prime Minister was asked if the information is confirmed, namely that authorities have no clear evidence of COVID-19 cases at the county level. In this sense, a clarification made by the National Institute of Public Health was made, according to which laboratories that are doing tests for diagnosing SARS-CoV-2 report in the online platform only the total number and processed tests, and at the central level there is no data per county. "Here you have an exaggerated conclusion. We have a clear evidence and the data says very clearly what we know is being tested. At the same time, this press release refers to the fact that tests are being conducted at home as well. There are many home antigen tests and there are people who are testing positive at home. Some of these people call the Department of Public Health and say that they tested positive and then do a PCR test, some of them do not. This is what this refers to. There are many tests being made in Romania, but are not being reported. All that is tested within the medical system and all that is reported, is publicly reported. And the analysis that we have - are we are looking at several indicators, not just the number of tests - if we look at what is happening, at the number of people calling the emergency line, if we look at what is happening in the ICU's, we see things everywhere are improving," Citu said. He added that the restrictions maintained during the holiday period allowed the number of COVID-19 cases in Bucharest drop, and given the conditions in which the tendency will hold, restaurants could be reopened. Asked about how schools could be reopened, given that there is no clear evidence of cases at a county level, the Prime Minister reiterated that the number of people getting sick is not the only indicator taken into consideration.AGERPRES(RO - author: Irinela Visan, editor: Mihai Simionescu; EN - author: Catalin Cristian Trandafir, editor: Maria Voican)