Health Minister Alexandru Rafila announced that the quarantine and isolation period for COVID patients would be reduced to 10 days, same as in many EU countries.

"We'll solve these days the quarantine and isolation period. In Romania, it will also last 10 days, same as in most European Union countries," Rafila told a press conference on Wednesday.

The head of the National Centre for the Transmissible Diseases Supervision and Control, Adriana Pistol, has urged to vaccination, in the context of the upcoming Omicron strain generated pandemic wave.

"If you have got the initial vaccination scheme, please get the booster as well, as it is important in this context of the Omicron strain, and not only for travels or having access to shopping malls. Those who haven't gotten the vaccine, please get vaccinated, again in the Omicron context, not necessarily to be able to enter the shopping mall. Vaccination is a prevention manner of a severe form of illness that is more frequent in elderly persons or those suffering from chronic diseases, nonetheless these [severe forms] appear in young persons as well. Many of us might have a chronic disease and not even be aware of it. Please get vaccinated so you don't develop a serious form of the illness," Pistol said.

She explained that the other EU states can afford the reduction of the quarantine period to even less than ten days, as they have a higher degree of vaccination among the population.

"They can reduce even more the isolation period, as transmissibility to a vaccinated person is much more reduced than to an unvaccinated one. (...) Here, the problem is the high number of unvaccinated persons and expectations are not quite optimistic," Pistol added. AGERPRES (RO - author: Livia Popescu, editor: Mihai Simionescu; En - editor: Adina Paniatescu)