The Minister of Health is sounding a very serious alarm signal with a last-minute warning for millions of Romanians throughout the country, and this is because he is talking about a very serious danger represented by the flu, the Romanian Government is going to decide whether it will be declared a flu epidemic in our country following an analysis made on Thursday.
The Minister of Health talks below about the measures that would be imposed if a flu epidemic is declared in Romania, and this is because we are talking about a lot of infections registered in the last weeks among Romanians, and the authorities are seriously discussing the declaration of the epidemic in order to protect the Romanians.
"On Thursday we will receive the figures for the past week, and then we will consider the scenario resulting from the processing of these figures. The mask will be mandatory in hospital units, but it is very clear that avoiding crowds, and the use of masks by people at risk, when entering crowded areas, is still recommended.
I think there are still medicines, we will give the public an extensive list of similar medicines, the request to pharmacists, family doctors, but also the population, is to look for one of these medicines, the trade name does not matter, the important thing is the active substance. We did an evaluation during this day, and for ibuprofen and paracetamol, this month we expect the influx to pharmacies to increase.
The Government does not declare a flu epidemic, the figures are the relevant ones, and according to the regulations of the European Center for Disease Control, we must consider that we are in an epidemic period. An increase of 20% for 3 consecutive weeks, and a proportion of at least 10% of the tested samples are confirmed for influenza, means that it is an epidemic.
It is about measures (n. ed. asked about epidemic measures) at the level of hospitals, which are general measures addressed to the population, and on the one hand hospitals, which must adapt their visiting program according to this situation, especially in in the case of wards where there are patients at high risk if they fall ill with the flu, the medical staff must use the mask inside as well.
Practically, all hygiene rules and infection prevention rules are updated, so that the risks of transmission are as low as possible. From what is happening this year, the flu season is declared 3/4 weeks earlier than the usual one, the flu starting to circulate much faster and more intensively. It will end 3/4 weeks sooner, but this year, considering the restrictions of previous years, the circulation of viruses was higher without protective measures."
