Alexandru Rafila: "Obviously, Romania has entered the 5th wave"

The Minister of Health, Alexandru Rafila, declared that Romania has entered the 5th wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, writes Agerpres. He added that at the moment there is a sporadic transmission of the Omicron variant and it is estimated that in one or two weeks there will be a sustained community transmission of this variant.

Alexandru Rafila said that he has developed a very clear patient circuit, mentioning that there will be an increase in testing capacity from a few hundred locations to a few thousand, being an increase of at least 10 times the test locations currently in force.

"I think that Omicron is not predominant in Romania yet. We cannot answer this question with certainty. It is, at the moment, a sporadic transmission of the Omicron variant, but it is very likely that in the next period, let's say in two weeks time, to end up having a sustained community transmission of the Omicron variant", mentioned Rafila.

According to him, two of the typical symptoms of Omicron are "a slightly altered, less intense sore throat, more like a kind of itching, and profuse sweating during the night". "There are, of course, other symptoms as well: asthenia, muscle aches, myalgias, fever, sometimes a digestive syndrome," added Minister Alexandru Rafila.

He said that he was concerned about the Omicron variant and had prepared several measures.

"From the end of this month, we will have innovative antivirals available, which we will only administer to patients with moderate forms and risk factors. We have estimated around one million cases and we are trying to get antiviral treatment for about 250.000 of these cases", said the Minister of Health.

Minister Rafila also said that this treatment will be taken on an outpatient basis and that innovative medicines should be administered in the first days of illness.

Translated by: Radu Matei