The Minister of Health is warning the millions of Romanians across the country at the moment, and is sending them an official announcement of great national importance, and this is because he once again confirms the fact that he expects a more intense flu season this year compared to previous pandemic years.
The Minister of Health says that this happens due to the fact that fewer people have been vaccinated in recent years, but also that the natural immunity obtained through infection has decreased during the years of measures to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus, so it is very possible that the number of flu cases in 2022 to be a big one.
"Yes, there will be more than last year (ed. I ask what are the expectations regarding the number of flu cases in 2022), last year there were very, very few. This does not mean that it is worrying, the important thing is how many there will be. We are looking at what happened in the southern hemisphere, where there is a delayed flu season, because there the winter is warm.
We see that there are more cases, there is also a lower protection of people, because many of them have not been vaccinated, they have not even come into contact with the virus, and it is clear that the immunity to the flu virus is something more low, and then for sure we have a problem, on the other hand, the measures that were against the Coronavirus, the mask, certain restrictions, no longer exist now.
Then the possibility... because it is a disease that is transmitted identically, there is no difference between how the flu is transmitted, and how the infection with the new Coronavirus is transmitted, and then obviously a recrudescence of the number of cases is possible. Moreover, you noticed that there is a higher number of respiratory viruses, as this is the indicator for monitoring the circulation of the influenza virus, compared to last year in the same period.
But there is also an explanation related to the delayed start of schools compared to last year, I think 12 days compared to last year, and then we have these two weeks in which the "exchanges" of viruses between children were more intense, because it started and school earlier.
We want to introduce a system that encourages them to report (ed. asked about managers who do not report nosocomial infections). Each manager is evaluated annually according to performance, and receives a score. On the ministry's website, you can find a draft ministerial order that scores unfavorably on those who report below a certain figure, in whose case it is hard to believe that there are no infections."
