President Klaus Iohannis said on Thursday that the latest data on COVID-19 cases show an upward trend in the epidemic, adding that social distancing and hygiene measures must be “religiously” observed, Nineoclock.ro reports. 

“Unfortunately, today we have passed 10,000 people infected with COVID-19 and we have a significant increase in cases confirmed in the last 24 hours, almost 400 new cases. These data show that the epidemic is still on an upward trend in Romania, and we must continue to strictly observe, I should say almost religiously, the hygiene and social distancing orders. We cannot afford to weaken our resolve at all, because we are not yet at the stage where we can speak of flattening the infection curve in our country,” Iohannis said at a news briefing at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace.

He pointed out that most countries are still at an early stage of the epidemic, and there is a worrying resurgence of cases in countries that have been affected earlier.

“Medical evidence suggests that most of the world’s population can become infected, which means that there is a major risk that the epidemic will rekindle very easily, even in those areas where it seemed to be kept under control. All this shows us once again that national efforts must be doubled by a joint effort at European level to combat the effects of this pandemic,” Iohannis said.

Iohannis said that, in a video conference with members of the European Council on Thursday, he would support the roadmap on economic recovery unveiled by the presidents of the European Council and the European Commission.

24 April 2020 / 12:25