Coronavirus Chronicle in Moldova: The Emergency Is Over but Not the Epidemic

Marina DRAGALIN A week has passed since the emergency state ended in Moldova. The unfolding events make one reflect about the timeliness of this step. A new coronavirus infection has infected 5 million people around the world and claimed more than 320 thousand lives. The COVID-19 infection was officially confirmed for nearly 6.5 thousand citizens, 228 people died in Moldova. The quantity of people suspected of infection reaches 43 thousand residents of the republic. The incidence rate decrease recorded in early May did not unfortunately last long. Last week was the blackest since the start of the epidemic. During this period, 1,133 new cases of infection were registered - this is almost a fifth of the total number of cases. Such statistics brought Moldova to the fourth place in Europe in terms of infection with the new coronavirus type per 1 million people. Only Belarus, Russia and Great Britain are ahead. Removing a number of restrictive measures and the fact that people do not comply with the rules brought to the jump. “Last week we had anti-records, this is due to the fact that 2 weeks ago we eased some restrictions, civil servants returned to work, we reopened commercial units, it is clear that this all caused an increase in the number of cases ... The weakening of measures on May 9, explain this all. I saw that people were very relaxed, went out to barbecue, which is still not allowed,” Prime Minister Ion Chicu analyzed the situation. The head of National Public Health Agency, Nicolae Furtuna, openly associates the new outbreaks with the population’s irresponsible behavior: “We urged citizens to stay at home on Easter, on the Remembrance Day. People did not go to the cemeteries but still celebrated. Now we reap the May 9th benefits. Today I observed the catastrophic situation in the city: the public transport is crowded; protection measures are not respected.” Despite this, dissatisfaction with continuing restrictive measures is gaining momentum in Moldova. The Moldovan Metropolis especially distinguished lately. It would seem that representatives of the Orthodox Church, professing the concept of humility, should have calmly taken the authorities’ decisions to regulate the holding church services procedure for the period of quarantine. Moreover, service is not prohibited if observing a number of fairly simple requirements: open air, distance and masks. But the situation took a completely different turn. The Moldovan Orthodox Church Synod threatened Igor Dodon and Ion Chicu to exclude them from prays if the churches were not allowed to return to usual services format in the near future: This stated the letter that the Metropolitan sent to Prime Minister Ion Chicu. Apparently, the history of infection with COVID-19 site in the monastery of Stefan Voda was a little forgotten. In addition to this, it is the church that “accelerates” the topic of “chipping” the population of Moldova with the COVID-19 vaccine having as purpose the subsequent consciousness control and manipulation through the 5G towers network. In particular, Markell the bishop of Balti and Faleshti made a call not to be vaccinated against coronavirus, since the vaccine is supposedly an invention of “globalists Satanists” who intend to monitor people and influence their thoughts. The owners and employees of still closed markets, restaurants, shopping and fitness centers come up with much more reasonable and logical requirements against this background. Protesters staged a rally with placards in Chisinau stating “Open the country's markets”, “Sit at home yourself”, “# I want to work,” and so, referring to art. 43 of the Constitution demanded that they be allowed resuming work. Moldovan business is easy to understand: every downtime day is an irreparable loss and one more step to ruin. Currently, half of the 25 thousand citizens who applied for unemployment benefits are patent holders. According to the Cabinet of Ministers calculations the number of only official unemployed people may increase by 3 times. “The number of applications submitted to the Employment Agency is increasing. In this regard, we increased the amount provided for in the state budget for the unemployment benefits payment from 32 million lei to 100 million lei. It is difficult to make predictions, since there is still hidden unemployment but I believe the number of official unemployed people can increase at least three times, ” Prime Minister Chicu said. The World Bank predicts that about 60 million people around the world may be in extreme poverty because of the pandemic. In this regard, the organization committed itself to provide to developing countries with $ 160 billion grants, loans and investments for 15 months. Under this program, Moldova is to receive 53 million euros to implement measures for COVID-19 pandemic combating. The money will go both to strengthen the health system and to help the poor and vulnerable through social protection measures. Financial means will be absolutely not superfluous since after amendments stated above and a number of other ones, together with the significant state revenues reduction during emergency period, the budget deficit in 2020 can reach 20 billion lei. The government is looking for alternative sources of funding. According to Ion Chicu, part of the deficit was supposed to cover the Russian loan but after the Constitutional Court decision the loan agreement with the Russian Federation was suspended. In addition, Moldova traditionally relies on macro-financial assistance from the European Union. Its first tranche is expected in June-July, the second one is to take place at the end of this or the beginning of next year. Given the general forecasts for the economy of both Moldova and the world generally, within 12 to 18 months the republic will need all international friends and their help. Especially given the expected second wave of the epidemic in October-November, which may require reintroduction of stringent restrictions. The current emergency state ending created an illusion of the situation getting to normal. The population and business are trying to return to their usual course, however, until the epidemic has not released the country out of its strong embrace a full return to the pre-quarantine regime is fraught only with new outbreaks.