Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said on Wednesday that he called on the county committees for emergency situations to be more seriously involved in implementing the legal measures adopted by the authorities, control actions and communication with citizens to comply with the health protection measures in the context of the epidemic of the new coronavirus.

"We organized a video-conference with the prefects in the country and with the emergency committees. The subject of this video-conference was the intensification of the actions of the authorities in the fight against the spread of coronavirus infection. There is an obvious upward trend in the number of cases. For this reason, I have called on the county committees for emergency situations to be more seriously involved in the implementation of the legal measures adopted by the authorities; also, an intensification of the control actions and, last but not least, an intensification of the communication with the citizens for the observance of the health protection measures," Ludovic Orban also declared, on Wednesday evening, at the Interior Ministry headquarters, after the video-conference with the prefects and with the representatives of the institutions with responsibilities in the management of the epidemic.

He stressed that, first of all, in schools, the authorities must ensure that all health protection measures are observed - disinfection, wearing a mask, respecting the social distancing.

"Also in schools and universities, with the beginning of tomorrow's academic year, the decisions taken at the level of the County Committees for Emergency Situations must strictly take into account the legal regulations and the government decision on the state of alert and the common order of the Minister of National Education and the Minister of Health, not at the will of some school principals. What the law says must be applied," Orban added.

The prime minister then referred to the risk of spreading the new coronavirus where weddings or baptisms are held.

"From the analyses performed by INSP [National Institute of Public Health] and by specialists from the Ministry of Health and the Department for Emergency Situations, it is clear that the highest risk of infection occurred during events - weddings, baptisms and other types of events - where the health protection measures were not observed, the maximum number of people and other rules that should have been observed," Orban stated.

He specified that a second risk factor for the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases was and is urban or intra-county public transport.

"The second risk factor has been transport, public transport, both urban transport and especially the intra-county, inter-county transport and the transport to industrial platforms from home to work and from work to home. We called for the intensification of controls regarding compliance with the rules and also, for very clear decisions to be made. Where the law requires, restrictive decisions must be introduced in order to prevent the spread of the virus," Orban said.

The head of the Executive underlined that he also asked the authorities that "wherever the situation requires, they should make decisions to quarantine either localities or areas".

Regarding public communication, Orban specified that he asked the prefects, immediately after the new mayors take the oath of office, to organize meetings in each county with local elected officials and to ask them to be actively involved in ensuring compliance with health protection measures, both through public communication and through the involvement of the structures subordinated to the mayoralties in the observance of the health regulations.

"The mayors, up to the local elections, many mayors were afraid to make decisions and get actively involved in imposing health protection measures. Currently, mayors are elected, they are elected for four-year terms, they have full authority and we need the collaboration of the mayors and the local elected authorities in reducing the number of cases and in ensuring the observance of the health protection measures," Orban also stated. AGERPRES (RO - author: Daniel Florea, editor: Florin Marin; EN - editor: Simona Iacob)