Cav's Place

This afternoon’s report marked two milestones for Romania, the totals reaching over one million confirmed COVID-19 cases and over 25000 deaths, the exact numbers provided being 1002865 and, respectively, 25006. The number of confirmed daily cases has been dropping lately, however, even though the number of tests remains pretty much the same, and Bucharest seems to be moving safely away from that value of 7.5 cases per 1000 citizens within the past 14 days that would cause the 8 PM curfew and 6 PM closing time of all stores bar pharmacies and gas stations to apply every day instead of only Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the latest reported value being 6.39, steadily dropping from the peak of 7.08 reported on March 31… Though I’m still thinking that some, shall we say, creativity was employed in order to keep that value safely below the threshold at least last week, and it’s clear that the authorities specifically don’t want to know the real number of cases, even the reporter presenting the numbers on national television wanting to stress that what she was reading were the numbers of cases confirmed according to the existing procedures and the real number of infections was certainly much higher.
However, while even before this recent drop the number of reported cases remained well below the values from the peak of the second wave, the number of patients in intensive care reaches new highs, as does the total of those who are hospitalized because of this. The latest report lists 13337 hospitalized, 1492 of them in intensive care, the previous day’s report marking the record for COVID-19 patients in intensive care, 1496, news reports stating then that only 96 more intensive care beds were available for COVID-19 patients in the entire country, and none of them in Bucharest or the surrounding counties. The highest reported number of COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized was 14165, on April 5, but it was this situation reported on April 9 that prompted a decision to immediately turn another hospital from Bucharest into one dedicated to COVID-19, which resulted in protesters gathering at the gates and gendarmes needing to clear a path for ambulances to transfer patients in serious condition to other hospitals late last night. The record number of deaths reported in one day remains the 213 seen on December 8, this year’s record being the 196 reported on April 6, but the December 8 report listed 12571 hospitalized and 1276 in intensive care, and with hospitals reporting needing to resort to increasingly desperate solutions to offer some care to those who need it, things don’t look good for the near future.
And yes, there are still protests against the measures, the restrictions, the decisions, people who still won’t even believe that the virus exists, or at least that it’s dangerous, and apparently increasing numbers of others who won’t believe the facts, the data, the statements of the doctors or officials and will distrust and even completely reject the vaccines or any treatments known to have some efficiency but will believe in other supposed solutions promoted by various individuals, obtain and use them on their own if they are or think they may be infected and, if their condition worsens and they do end up in hospital, not dying first, they’ll vehemently refuse even oxygen. And there are also plenty of cases where the relatives of those who die of COVID-19 refuse to accept that they had it even then, a notable recent case being that of a singer… Who was, interestingly, one of a few folkloric or “party” singers who died of this within days of each other. But, of course, whether those in charge, who seem to go from one blunder to another and, for example, seem to remain incapable of putting to use equipment and field hospitals costing tens of millions and presented with much fanfare some time ago, or the masses, who keep reacting in such a mindlessly dangerous, if not downright criminal, manner, people will be people. To return to that Babylon 5 quote: “That does seem to be the rule, doesn’t it? Analyze the problem, choose whichever strategy makes least sense and then do it.”