PM Citu: It's time for Romanians to enjoy weddings, baptisms again; new relaxation measures - July 1

Prime Minister Florin Citu on Thursday stated that the pandemic has not passed yet, but "it is time for Romanians to enjoy weddings, baptisms" and other events again.

Citu said that the relaxation measures decided on June 1 for vaccinated people are not a privilege for them, but an encouragement for people to get immunised so that we can all return to normalcy, and mentioned that other relaxations will be discussed for July 1.

"Every step we take and in which we see that the pandemic is somewhat overcome, for we are still fighting the pandemic, we have not yet overcome everything, but we have a programme, which we have announced, relaxations from June 1, July 1, August 1, depending on what happens with several parameters. Today we have continued exactly as I announced on May 15, with new relaxations. I think that the long-awaited ones are for public-private events, which have been postponed for a year. It is time for Romanians to enjoy weddings, baptisms and so on again, so from June 1, provided that certain conditions are met, we can talk about a new stage after a year that has been difficult for many Romanians," PM Citu told B1Tv private television station.

According to him, an important step has been taken in connection with the wearing of the mask, which is no longer mandatory in an enclosed space where there are a maximum of five people, on condition that they are vaccinated.

"We will discuss other relaxations from July 1," the Prime Minister added.

He said the benefits for vaccinated people were not "privileges" but "normalcy."

Also, in his opinion, measures to open clubs, bars and discos, at 50pct of their capacity to vaccinated people, are not a privilege, but an "encouragement."

He explained that experts say the risk of the disease spreading among vaccinated people "is about zero."

Asked about the fact that the target of 5 million vaccinated people would not be reached on June 1, the Prime Minister replied: "The target was not 5 million vaccinated people, the target was to get rid of the pandemic. (...) It was an estimate that we all made that we needed that number in order to get past this stage. We've been vaccinated faster and we seem to have gotten over it faster. That's the goal of the vaccination campaign, to overcome the pandemic."