Romania reports record number of COVID-19 patients in ICU

The number of COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) in Romania reached 1,313 on Friday, a record high since the outbreak, but Prime Minister Florin Citu said new restrictions would not be considered for the time being, Trend reports citing Xinhua.

In the last 24 hours, 5,593 new cases were registered in Romania, the fourth consecutive day to report over 5,000 new cases, bringing the caseload to 886,752, official data showed.

Meanwhile, with 143 more fatalities associated with the virus, the death toll now stood at 22,020, according to the latest data released by the Strategic Communication Group, Romania’s official COVID-19 communication task force.

However, Citu said he would not consider introducing new restrictive measures for the time being, emphasizing that “the vaccination is the only way to get out of the pandemic as soon as possible.”

“Anything else is only temporary. The vaccination campaign and the vaccine is the only long-term solution,” said the prime minister.

The authorities hoped to alleviate the pandemic by stepping up its vaccination campaign that started on Dec. 27, 2020.

So far, 2,426,191 vaccine doses have been administered to 1,658,269 people, among whom 890,347 people have received the first dose and 767,922 both.

Currently, three vaccines — Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca — have been approved for use in Romania.

Globally, 264 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide — 82 of them in clinical trials — in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain, and the United States, according to the latest information released by the World Health Organization.