Coronavirus Chronicle in Moldova: Pandemic Dictates Conditions

Marina DRAGALIN The impact of the new coronavirus infection is well seen in almost all areas beginning with economy and ending with education. Moreover, this week one could finally find out pandemic’s conditions for voting in the autumn local and presidential elections. The new type of coronavirus infection global spread indicates a steady increase in the number of cases and deaths from COVID-19. To date, more than 19 million people have the "crown" confirmed. Growth dynamics keeps the same: every few days another million is added. The pandemic has already claimed almost 718 thousand lives, and the epidemiological situation is in no hurry to return to normal. Europe, which has recently reached relatively calm plateaus, is again registering outbreaks and a serious situation worsening. To the usual "anti-record" in France, Spain and Belgium joined Romania. The epidemic is also continuing in Moldova. It is for the second week that the number of new COVID-19 cases exceeds the total data of the previous week. Recently, new cases have peaked at over 400 per day. In total, 26.6 thousand cases of infection have been confirmed in the country. 828 Moldovans have already died of infection. Another 31.5 thousand citizens are under doctors’ supervision. Unfortunately, there remains a high number of critical condition patients and stay connected to mechanical ventilation devices. Against this background, the government's statements are quite understandable they say it is extremely important to keep some of the restrictions since the situation with the coronavirus remains alarming. “The pandemic evolution is negative; the number of infections is growing for the second week. We simply have to keep the restrictions,” Prime Minister Ion Chicu stressed. Unfortunately, a number of organizations continue to violate established rules. According to the deputy director of the National Center for Public Health Vasilie Gustiuc, economic operators commit the same violations: crowded people in closed rooms, non-observing distance between workplaces and lack of personal protective measures. Ion Chicu does not rule out that the activities of such establishments will be suspended - privately or across the entire sector. “The government is forced to resort to these measures, because, in addition to the risk to citizens, it provokes huge expenditures from the budget. On Friday, we allocated almost 10 million lei for sick doctors, this week we will allocate more. We spend a lot of money from the budget, a thing that we could not have done if we all were more responsible,” the head of the Cabinet explained. The consequences of restrictions associated with the work of educational institutions have recently acquired particular relevance. According to the latest data, due to the pandemic around the world, more than a billion students lost their opportunity to properly continue the education and 40 million children could not go to kindergartens and on-site child care. Negative consequences due to distanced education were only partially mitigated even in developed countries. According to UNESCO statistics, the number of people one way or another affected by the educational process interruption is estimated at millions: for example, in the UK, Germany and France they reach almost15.5 million people. “We face a generational disaster that could lead to an enormous human potential loss,” stresses UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. The preparation for the new school year is being discussed at the level of the country's leadership in Moldova. It is necessary to equip state and municipal educational institutions with disinfectants and thermometers to open them. The government is already planning to allocate funds for this. Meanwhile, in Chisinau, the leaders and founders of private kindergartens are protesting. Bearing slogans “Education is a right”, “Psychological degradation is worse than COVID-19” and “Waiting for the end of the epidemic is not an option”, they protested on the eve before the government’s building demanding to allow them resuming work. Cessation of activities for 5 months led to massive teachers’ dismissals, to loss of clients and large debts. “We hope that from September 1 we will be able to open both preschool institutions, schools and lyceums,” Prime Minister Chicu said. Another expected news was on instructions for measures to prevent infection with COVID-19 during the election campaign. According to the rules, on the day of elections, before opening the precinct, general cleaning and disinfection of the premises is to be carried out, the chairman of the electoral bureau will take all those present’s temperature and will put it down in a special register. At the entrance to the polling station, each voter will be required to take the temperature. Coming to local elections on September 6 and to the presidential elections on November 1 everybody needs to have his own pen, own protective mask and gloves. Despite the fact that it is not yet necessary to talk about the epidemiological situation stabilization, the government is in no hurry to introduce new restrictive measures or change approaches to prevent the infection spread and is limiting itself to appeals for more responsibility to citizens. The attempt to regulate sanitary standards for the sake of painless autumn election campaigns instills rather restrained optimism, and there is no confidence that it will be possible to avoid the disease outburst after the voting.