PM Orban: We are not manipulating any figures related to coronavirus; this is political demagogy

Prime Minister Ludovic Orban on Sunday evening stated that there is no way to manipulate the data related to the coronavirus cases while accusing of political demagogy the ones who claim otherwise.

"All this political demagogy about how we are manipulating the figures. We are not manipulating any figures. We have a number of laboratories that are accredited, with a testing capacity that we have increased from 500-600 to more than 17,000 tests daily. These laboratories are doing Real Time PCR analyses. These analyses are done according to a methodology and they are being recorded. There is a centralized system where all information is recorded daily and all information is public. Nobody would be able to manipulate this information. Whoever launches such allegations in the public area is not normal. There is no way to manipulate this information. The results from the RT-PCR testing are being communicated to the public. The same is the danger. (...) We have a mortality rate of more than 6 per cent. People die because of this virus. (...) This virus threatens people's health and lives. You cannot play with such things. When you know that this virus can cause someone's death, we must all act together, and we must show solidarity especially with the people who are providing correct information to the public. But slighting the danger systematically and encouraging people not to observe the rules is a very dangerous thing to do because people do follow the leaders and listen to them to not observe the rules while putting their own lives in danger," Orban told Romania TV private television broadcaster.

He criticized the fact that some politicians behave in an irresponsible manner by encouraging people to ignore the rules during this time.

Ludovic Orban underscored that the state of alert will stay in force as long as necessary.

On Sunday the spokesman for the PSD (Social Democratic Party), Lucian Romascanu, said the Government is manipulating the data and hiding the truth with respect to the number of cases with the novel coronavirus.