Statistical data show that values exceeding by more than 20% the multi-year average of the last five pre-pandemic seasons were recorded. The Minister of Health announces an “epidemiological alert” but says there will be no flu epidemic and no restrictions are in place.
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The manager of the Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Iasi, doctor Florin Roşu, emphasizes that the flu epidemic should be declared in Romania. Since the beginning of the flu season, 190 people with the flu have been treated at the medical unit he runs, 30 of them children. Currently, 40 patients with influenza are hospitalized at the Iasi Infectious Diseases Hospital.
In this context, the doctor Florin Roșu claims that it would be necessary to declare a flu epidemic in Romania, against the background of the increasing number of cases.
“This statistic that I have presented forces us all to declare a flu epidemic, this will have to mobilize funding from the Ministry of Health and especially for patients cared for in Intensive Care throughout the country. For any change in the body's well-being, we must go to the doctor, to benefit from a specialist consultation, laboratory and radiological analyses, and following them, if necessary, to follow a treatment, most of the time in ambulatory mode“, said the doctor Florin Roșu.
He recommends people get vaccinated against the flu, wear a mask in crowded places and see a doctor when the first symptoms appear.
The situation at the national level
Even if we are in the third week in which flu activity is above the epidemic threshold and the situation could be considered an epidemic, the Minister of Health will not declare it as such, in order not to disrupt economic activity and that in schools. Instead of restrictions, the authorities rely on recommendations.
“I will issue an instruction – because the law allows – for a state of epidemic alert, because declaring the epidemic based on a ministerial order would put us in a situation where certain restrictions are automatically generated. However, what we want is an approach in support of economic and social activity, to keep schools open, not to introduce quarantine and isolation measures again“, announced the Minister of Health, Alexandru Rafila.
The data of the National Institute of Public Health show that in the last three weeks there have been values that exceed by more than 20% the multi-year average of the last five pre-pandemic seasons.
The positivity rate for influenza infection was 37% in the last week of December, compared to 32% a week ago and 26% two weeks ago. At the same time, the first two deaths due to the flu of this season were also announced.
