Romania's total COVID-19 cases top 400,000, with 9,756 deaths
CGTN
Young people enjoy contemporary art during the Museum Night at a museum in Bucharest, Romania, on Nov. 14, 2020. /Xinhua

Young people enjoy contemporary art during the Museum Night at a museum in Bucharest, Romania, on Nov. 14, 2020. /Xinhua

Romania's confirmed coronavirus caseload surpassed 400,000 since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching 403,123, and the death toll is now 9,756, official data showed on Friday.

In the last 24 hours, another 9,272 cases were confirmed and 160 people died, according to the Strategic Communication Group (GCS), Romania's official COVID-19 communication task force.

Currently, 13,548 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized in the specialized health units, and 1,139 of them are in intensive care, added the GCS.

A total of 46,568 people who were infected with the coronavirus are in isolation at home and 13,628 others are in institutional isolation.

According to the GCS, the capital Bucharest, with a total of 56,015 cases, is currently the administrative district with the highest number of infections in the country, while Sibiu County in the central part of the country has the highest infection rate, 8.9 per thousand inhabitants.

So far, nearly 20 cities across the country have implemented 14-day lockdown measures due to the severe pandemic.

The Romanian authorities have imposed a one-month curfew throughout the country from Nov. 9. Residents are not allowed to leave their homes from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. without special circumstances.

Meanwhile, the government has also introduced a series of new preventive and control measures, including expanding the mandatory face mask-wearing requirement from the original indoor public spaces to all public places.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), face masks should be used as part of a comprehensive strategy of measures to suppress COVID-19 transmission and save lives.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreaks, wearing masks in public has been widely accepted in Asian countries like China, South Korea, Japan and Vietnam to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency