Radio România Internațional

Tag: Covid certificate

  • Disagreement over the mandatory Covid certificate

    Disagreement over the mandatory Covid certificate

    Already introduced in some countries, including in the European Union, the obligation to have a so-called green COVID certificate in order to be allowed to go to work has triggered vehement political disputes in Romania. The media in Bucharest say that there are little chances that a new law on the said certificate will appear by the end of the year and even less for such a certificate to become mandatory at work. The leaders of the PSD-PNL-UDMR governing coalition had another meeting on Thursday on this topic, but to no avail. Discussions are set to resume next week, after Christmas.

    According to some political sources, the idea of giving up the obligation to have a COVID certificate at work would belong to President Klaus Iohannis. The leaders of the coalition, the Liberal Florin Cîţu and the Social Democrat Marcel Ciolacu, are now discussing that such a law that conditions work on a certificate might be declared unconstitutional.

    On the other hand, the opposition USR says that without a mandatory certificate at work, a law on this matter is devoid of content.In an open letter to President Iohannis, former USR Health Ministers Ioana Mihail and Vlad Voiculescu say the mandatory certificate is vital to fighting infections and supporting the vaccination campaign.

    Politicians’ hesitations come after about a hundred people protesting against the possible introduction of the mandatory COVID certificate at work stormed the courtyard of the Bucharest Parliament on Tuesday. The protest, which nobody has claimed, was intensely popularised the night before by the nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) and gathered, according to the authorities, about 1,500 people, who disrupted road traffic in the area.

    Numerous anti-vaccination groups, very visible and vocal in the public space, joined the AUR parliamentarians who accused the violation of some fundamental rights.The Minister of Interior, the Liberal Lucian Bode, has stated that there was no risk the protesters would enter the Parliament building, guarded by 300 gendarmes, whom he ordered not to use force. Bode also claims that the AUR parliamentarians brought people inside in their cars and later urged those who were protesting outside to enter as well.

    Since the outbreak of the pandemic, over 1.8 million cases of infection with the new coronavirus have been registered in Romania, and almost 60,000 people diagnosed with COVID-19 have died.In other words, experts say that Romania has lost, in less than two years, the population of an average city. Against the background of the anti-vaccine psychosis maintained by some media, politicians and other public figures, the country has the second lowest immunisation rate among the 27 members of the European Union, after Bulgaria. (MI)

  • Vaccination and the green pass

    Vaccination and the green pass

    The number of Romanians who want to get immunized against Covid continues to drop, with less than 25 thousand people getting the jab in 24 hours. Consequently, the total number of vaccinated people goes up at a slow pace, with only 7.7 million Romanians fully vaccinated and almost 2 million who also received the booster jab. Authorities are trying to convince people go to vaccination centers and are considering introducing the green certificate at the workplace. The Government announced consultations on this topic with the civil society and the Social Democrat leader, Marcel Ciolacu, whose party initiated the draft law, said that authorities agreed on its adoption by year-end. Meanwhile, Romanians who do not believe in the effectiveness of vaccination, but want to enjoy the same rights as the immunized persons, are using illegal methods to win the status of vaccinated person and the green pass that gives them easy access to stores, restaurants, cinemas and theatre halls.



    The high demand for fake documents is has been met with a wide offer. Nurses and other people who have access to the database are ready to release such documents for several hundred euros while anti-corruption prosecutors are trying to prevent that from happening. This week alone, two nurses at the vaccination centre of the balneal facility in Mangalia, south-eastern Romania, an employee with the Municipal Hospital in this Black Sea resort and another three persons have been detained and are investigated for having contributed to the issuing of more than 100 fake Covid digital certificates. The first official case of fake vaccination involving a general practitioner was reported in Romania at the beginning of September. Authorities had been conducting investigations ever since summer, and found that tens of thousands such fake documents may have been issued. Last month alone, authorities found that 3,500 false certificates were released at the Petea checkpoint in north-western Romania.



    According to official data, over 1,300 people are being investigated and more than 500 criminal cases have been opened for fake documents. Interior Minister, Lucian Bode, says that Bucharest occupies an unwanted 1st place in Europe in this respect. However, other countries are having this problem as well. The French Interior Ministry has announced that the police found more than 182,000 fake Covid certificates issued in the country. In Italy, a leader of the anti-vaccine movement was arrested in Palermo, together with a nurse and another person, for using a fake Covid certificate. (EE)