Romania’s quarantine law takes effect as daily COVID-19 cases hit new high

Bucharest, Romania. Photo: MTI/AP/Vadim Ghirda

The law on quarantine and isolation came into effect in Romania on Tuesday as daily coronavirus cases reached 994, setting a new record in a single day since the outbreak.

The new law was formulated in response to the current COVID-19 epidemic. It also applies to any epidemics or biological risks that may occur in the future.

According to the new law, all people diagnosed with infection must be hospitalized for 48 hours for observation, and then the doctor will make the decision of hospitalization, home treatment or home isolation for the patients.

Meanwhile, the persons who come into direct contact with the people infected with COVID-19, as well as those entering Romania from the so-called COVID-19 red-zone countries, or areas of high epidemiological risk, will be quarantined. Those who violate the quarantine regulations and cause infections of others will be held criminally responsible.

The government had to urgently enact a quarantine law after the country’s Constitutional Court ruled in late June against imposing the quarantine and isolation measures by the government through a ministerial order, stressing that such measures needed to be brought about by an act of parliament.

Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said on Tuesday that

more than 4,000 Romanian citizens either were discharged from the hospital before they were cured or tested positive and didn’t get admitted in the first place, in the past two weeks of “legislative vacuum.”

Orban demanded the Public Health Directorates to issue a decision to make it mandatory for them to either self-isolate at home or get admitted to the hospital according to their health condition.

Health Minister Nelu Tataru said on the same day that in the next two weeks the authorities will seek to reimpose measures of quarantine and isolation, and the epidemic evolution in the country will depend on whether people cooperate and whether they comply with health protection regulations.

The epidemic has rebounded sharply in Romania since mid-June, with average daily new cases of 741 in the past week, surpassing the average of less than 200 cases per day in the first half of June.

Nationwide, 994 new cases and 36 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours in the country. As of Tuesday, Romania has registered a total of 39,133 cases and 2,074 deaths, while 24,454 people have recovered.