Health minister says precautions must be maintained even after lifting state of emergency

Health Minister Nelu Tataru declared on Thursday that precautions must be maintained even after the lifting of the state of emergency in Romania.

"We have to understand one thing: precautions must be maintained. After these two months we are left with some skills - we return home and wash our hands, we wash our faces, we use a disinfectant, we isolate ourselves when we have some respiratory symptoms, we call the family doctor, we cough in the elbow, we cough in the handkerchief, we cough in a napkin, we wash after this gesture, we maintain social distancing in potentially crowded places, we wear a mask when we enter closed spaces or public transport. These are rules that also remain valid in a first phase of relaxation," the minister told RFI radio broadcaster.

He pointed out that inside the localities one may travel without bona fide declarations, but social distancing will be kept.

"If until now we have traveled with bona fide declarations, they will no longer be necessary. We will travel throughout the day, we will go to shops, shops that have the entrance from the street. We will go to museums. We will go in enclosed spaces, but we keep social distancing. This relaxation will be extended to individual sports. Dental offices, body care salons will be opened. But everything happens in stages, as we maintain the same precautions, precisely to avoid a possible community transmission of the coronavirus infection," explained Nelu Tataru.

The minister said that if the assessment made two weeks after the state of emergency is lifted shows that all the conditions in place have been respected, then there will be another "series of relaxations".

"If the two-week assessment shows that these conditions have been maintained, then we can proceed to a series of relaxations in the following two weeks, and we will try to get back to a relatively normal life in a month and a half or maybe two months," Tataru also declared.