HealthMin Tataru says Streinu-Cercel no longer part of special COVID-19 committee

Health Minister Nelu Tataru said on Thursday in Timisoara that Adrian Streinu-Cercel was removed as chairman of the Committee on Clinical and Epidemiological Management of COVID-19, adding that that he is no longer a member of the committee. "Professor Streinu-Cercel was a member of the special Anti-COVID committee, he was even its chairman. We have talks, there are proposals, we even think about these proposals, but I could not agree with him. (...) We are thinking of opportunities, we are protecting the elderly, but we could not agree. The emergence of that holiday plan only extrapolated certain thoughts. In fact, my decision was to remove him as chairman of the committee, about which I told him as well," said Tataru. Doctor Adrian Streinu Cercel has been replaced as chairman of the Committee on Clinical and Epidemiological Management of COVID 19, according to the Health Ministry. "The management of the Ministry of Health has decided to modify the composition of the Committee on Clinical and Epidemiological Management of COVID 19 by introducing several specialists in infectious diseases, cardiology, epidemiology, hematology, as well as replacing MD Adrian Streinu Cercel as chairman of the committee," the ministry reported in a press statement released on Thursday. Adrian Streinu-Cercel unveiled to the media, on the Easter mini-holiday, his own plan of measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 after the expiration of the state of emergency, entitled "THE GREAT HOLIDAY PROGRAMME for the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 / COVID 19 diseases," which included three-month home isolation of persons over aged 65 and over and even removing from the families the elderly people living with younger family members and accommodating them in hotels requisitioned by the government. Tataru said on Monday that no special restrictions will be imposed on the elderly or their isolation, adding that when the authorities take the decision to ease lockdown restrictions they will target all age classes. Similar positions were then expressed by President Klaus Iohannis and Prime Minister Ludovic Orban as well. AGERPRES (RO - author: Catalin Alexandru, editor: Marius Fratila; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)