According to Foreign Minister Szijjártó, Romania is facing very serious challenges in terms of the epidemic situation, "there are a lot of serious patients, a lot of cases per day,” he said. In the past few days, they have been in constant consultation with Deputy Prime Minister Hunor Kelemen and Health Minister Attila Cseke on how Hungary could help Romania in this extremely difficult situation, FM Szijjártó said.
Earlier, the foreign minister said, Hungary had sent ventilators and medicine with the active substance favipiravir, but the Romanian government had a bigger request. It was for Hungary to take seriously ill coronavirus-infected patients for intensive treatment, as "the workload of the Romanian health care system is already on the edge,” Szijjártó said.
The minister concluded that Hungary therefore decided to help Romania by taking 50 COVID-19 patients for intensive care, who would be admitted to the hospitals in Szeged and Debrecen. He said that the Romanian Ministry of Health and the Hungarian National Directorate General of Hospitals were currently negotiating the technical details, including the condition of the patients to be admitted. Hungary and Romania are also discussing the issue of the rapid translation of hospital diagnoses into Hungarian and when the transfer of patients can start, Szijjártó said.