BUCHAREST, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Romanian Prime Minister Ludovic Orban on Thursday asked for "general mobilization" of the ministries involved in the the fight against COVID-19, as the epidemic continued to intensify in the country, with daily new cases breaking the records for two consecutive days.
"All the ministries that are involved in the anti-COVID-19 battle must be mobilized to the maximum and use all the legal instruments in order to reduce the number of persons infected," Orban stressed at the beginning of the government meeting.
"Priority Zero is ... respecting health protection norms everywhere: in public transport, in the metro, in the workplace," said Orban, warning about possible scenarios where Romania will be isolated from other European countries, following the increase of COVID-19 cases.
The latest official figures released Thursday showed that in the past 24 hours, the number of newly diagnosed patients exceeded the 600 mark to 614 for the first time since the outbreak, surpassing the record of 555 cases set a day ago.
So far, the total number of persons infected reached 30,789, out of 809,663 tests processed nationwide, announced the Strategic Communication Group (GCS), the official novel coronavirus communication task force.
The epidemic has rebounded in Romania since mid-June. The statistics showed that the number of new cases per day averaged over 320 between June 16 and June 30, while the daily cases in the first half of the month were 194. Since July, the daily figure has exceeded 423.
Romania has had to postpone the further relaxation of coronavirus restrictions, which was previously scheduled for July 1, amid the escalation of infections, with the authorities blaming the situation on the lack of self-protection instincts of some citizens. Enditem
