Bucharest City not to lock down for Easter

Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu says that Bucharest City will not get locked down for Easter, adding that "only the criteria that can lead to a recommendation for the lockdown of a settlement locality have been clarified/updated."

"Bucharest will NOT lock down for Easter. The new criteria for locking down settlements have been published. We do not live in a new reality; only the criteria that can lead to a recommendation for the lockdown of a settlement locality have been clarified/updated. Prevalence of COVID-19 testing is becoming one of the main factors, along with the cumulative case rate, and the occupancy rates of hospitals and intensive care beds. Local lockdown is also defined. As usual, a lockdown decision is made based on several factors, not automatically," Voiculescu explains in a message posted on his Facebook page on Tuesday night.

At the same time, he underlines that these new criteria do not lead to the lockdown of Bucharest City for Easter.

"And no, the new criteria do not lead to the lockdown for Easter of the capital the same way as the old ones did not. None of the already announced decisions of the government change."

On Tuesday, an order for amending and supplementing the Order of the Minister of Health 1,309 / 2020 on the application of measures to prevent and contain COVID-19 was published in the Official Journal.

Thus, local lockdown can be ordered for towns or cities/metropolitan areas with over 100,000 inhabitants that meet at least 60 points. These points are awarded according to a series of indicators such as: the number of tests performed in the last seven days, the 14 cumulative case rate, its trend, the number outbreaks / total cases in the administrative areas, occupancy rate of intensive care beds in the county, occupancy rate of beds intended for patients with COVID-19 in the county.