COVID-19: Bucharest Enters Red Scenario on March 8, Timisoara already in Quarantine

One by one, major Romanian cities enter the red scenario. This is the one which enters into force whenever an area has more than 3 cases per 1,000 inhabitants over the past 14 days.

Timisoara, a big city situated next to the Western border, already entered quarantine. The measure was imposed after the new strain wreaked havoc in the city which exceeded 6 cases per thousand in the past 14 days. The infection rate was so high that the hospitals simply couldn’t take any more COVID-19 patients and had to send them to nearby counties hospitals.

Bucharest has just exceeded 3 per thousand infection rate and the authorities decided to impose the necessary measures: restaurants and theaters close their activities indoors once again, but schools will stay open for the primary school kids.

Will these measures be enough to stop the spreading of the new coronavirus? Hopefully, yes, but truth is these measures alone cannot properly stop the third wave from hitting the country. Romania has to keep up the vaccination rate, which at the moment places it on the second in EU by the number of people vaccinated with the second dose, but also to make sure the distancing rules apply across the country.

The Romanian PM stated recently he didn’t want to close the country once again, as it hurts the already crippled economy, but the evolution of the third wave in Romania can be unpredictable. The goal of the authorities is to vaccinate 10.3 million people by September, a reachable goal as up till now 1 million people already took the vaccine in Romania.