HealthMin: Vaccinating and testing against COVID-19 are solutions for opening activities

The Minister of Health, Vlad Voiculescu, declared on Monday that vaccinating and testing against COVID-19 are solutions for opening some activities. "At some point, the solution will probably contain these two components - vaccinating and testing. And yes, we are proposing as of now to work on mechanisms which will allow opening of certain cultural activities, certain sports activities, and yes, certainly, we will be using testing. We are looking at the possibility of organizing concerts. Let us look at the methods through which we can sooner live alongside the pandemic we are going through and which will take a while longer. We need to see beyond what is happening in hospitals, on the one hand to keep restrictions, and on the other hand to give restaurants, cultural activities, the possibility for life to continue," Voiculescu said in Parliament. He highlighted that the quick testing will be part of the solution and pharmacies are places where testing can be organized, if there are certain conditions, space and if people are willing to do the tests, showing that these aspects were defined in the Ministerial order and in the emergency ordinance, which will be adopted on Monday, most likely. He also said that there are currently over 2 million testing kits available. "Things are dynamic. We have donations from the European Commission and we are taking into consideration additional acquisitions. (...) The testing will probably end up being a service discounted by the National Health Insurance House. "It is a dynamic situation, matters are critical in hospitals. (...) Regarding restrictions, there is nowhere in the world a recipe which was used since the beginning of the pandemic until the end, there are measures which are more efficient or less efficient. We are trying to find the right mix," the Minister of Health added.AGERPRES(RO - author: Florentina Peia, editor: Florin Marin; EN - author: Catalin Cristian Trandafir, editor: Maria Voican)