All Romanians will be obliged to wear protective masks after 15 May, in enclosed spaces

After meeting prime minister Ludovic Orban and several ministers, president Klaus Iohannis announced some measures that will be taken after 15 May.

One of these measures is the obligation to wear protective masks in closed spaces and in public transport. In fact, at the beginning of the press statement, Iohannis wore a mask, saying: "This is how we will look like in enclosed spaces and in public transport".

Another measure announced by Iohannis is that after 15 May restrictions on free movement will be dropped, under certain conditions. Thus, Romanians will travel without declaring where they are going and why.

Until then, Iohannis appealed to Romanians to respect the restrictions.

We offer the statements of president Klaus Iohannis:

"Dear Romanians, this is what we will look like after May 15 in closed public spaces and when we use public transport. In order to hear each other better, I'll take off my mask.

Today we had a new meeting with prime minister Orban and a group of ministers and advisers, to start detailing what we announced yesterday, the so-called relaxation plan. It is, obviously, about the relaxation of the measures we have taken for the protection of the population and, in this sense, we will have, in a short time, a fairly detailed plan that we will present to the public. But we considered that some of the issues that concern us all, concern you all, must be announced in advance, in order to prepare.

One of these measures is the one about the protective mask. Thus, we decided today that after May 15 everyone will be required to wear protective masks in closed public spaces and when we use public transport. This measure is not limited in time and we will be able to give up wearing the mask maybe next year, when this pandemic will be under control and there is no risk of infection.

A second measure that we have decided is one that will surely delight many Romanians. After May 15, so after the current state of emergency expires, we will give up the restrictions on people. So we will not extend the restrictions on individual travel. Or, conversely, we will be able to move in public spaces without having to declare in advance where we are going and why we are going. It is about individual freedom of movement.

Obviously, for the general protection of the population and for individual protection, many restrictions will remain in force. In this way, the bans for public gatherings, for demonstrations of all kinds will certainly remain in force for a while - I speak after May 15.

There will be other bans in place, but it will not remain in place, and I thought it was important to give you this news so that we all have this perspective after 15 May.

Until 15 May, until the current state of emergency expires, all restrictions remain in force! I repeat: stay home until 15 May! All restrictions remain in effect!

After 15 May, we will be able to move more freely, but unfortunately life will not return to the normality we knew before this pandemic.

We will have a relaxation plan in steps, we will determine exactly which activity when it can start.

An extremely important activity is the school activity and this afternoon I will have a meeting with the leadership of the Education Ministry to start developing a concrete plan for the return of students to school. What this plan will look like will be presented to the public when it is developed with all the related details.

In parallel, work is under way on an analysis and a plan that will foresee exactly how to return to economic activity, especially in areas that have been severely restricted, such as the commercial field. Let's not imagine that everything returns to normal on 15 May.

Some restrictions will disappear, many more, unfortunately, will remain standing and, step by step, according to a schedule that obviously depends on the evolution of COVID-19 cases, we will try to enter what is called in a new normality, because, unfortunately, the specialists, the experts, the doctors tell us that the virus will not disappear.

So we will have to find a way to live with this virus, with this epidemic. This means, in free translation, that as the prohibitions imposed by the authorities are taken back, the responsibility of each of us will become bigger.

Everyone's responsibility will become bigger for all, but especially for the vulnerable. The older ones, those with other conditions will have to take much, much more care of them and we will have to be more careful how we interact with people who are more at risk of infection.

Along the way, as we will have new data, we will communicate this publicly".

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