PM Orban: We test depending on needs and based on protocol established by WHO

Testing for COVID-19 has been done in Romania "depending on the needs and based on the protocol that was established at the WHO level", Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said on Monday, adding that our country is "at the bottom of the ranking, compared to developed countries," with a death rate recorded in Romania of 4.1 per 1,000 people.

"I know that it has been said many times that we have few cases because we do not test enough and we replied that we test depending on the needs and based on the protocol that was established at the WHO level, and which is also promoted by the European Commission and validated by the Ministry of Health, through the National Institute of Public Health. And there are also many other indicators that can measure the spread of the epidemic," Orban explained in a conference press at Victoria Palace.

He specified that an indicator is the number of people in the ICUs.

"Never in Romania we had more than 260 people in ICUs. Also, another indicator is - and I don't like to talk about it, but we have to talk - the number of deaths. Regarding the number of deaths, I want to tell you that, while in Romania we had 800 people who died of coronavirus, in Spain there were 25,264 people who died, in France there were 24,895, not to mention Belgium which has the highest number of deaths per hundred thousand inhabitants, while Romania has 4.1 deaths per thousand inhabitants, being at the bottom of the ranking compared to developed countries," said the prime minister.