Hungary is helping Romania and accepting 50 coronavirus patients for intensive care, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in Budapest on Wednesday.
The head of the ministry emphasized that Romania is facing extremely serious challenges in terms of the epidemic situation, saying that “there are a lot of serious patients, a lot of daily cases.” In recent days, Hungary has been in constant contact with Deputy Prime Minister Kelemen Hunor and Attila Cseke, Minister of Health, (both ethnic Hungarians of the RMDSZ party in Romania) on how Hungary could help Romania in this extremely difficult situation, he said.
According to Szijjártó, ventilators and favipiravir medicine have been sent in the past, but the Romanian government had a bigger request: that Hungary take seriously ill coronavirus infections for intensive treatment, as “in many cases the workload of the Romanian health care system is already in critical condition,” he pointed out.
It was therefore decided to help Romania care for 50 Covid patients in intensive care; they will be taken over by the clinics in Szeged and Debrecen, both less than an hour’s drive from the Romanian border. Air transport of Covid patients is not possible, as those in critical condition require oxygen, and oxygen tanks are not allowed aboard aircraft.
Szijjártó mentioned that, currently, the Romanian Ministry of Health and Hungary’s National Hospital Directorate are discussing the technical details, including the condition of the patients to be treated.
The issue of the rapid translation of hospital diagnoses into Hungarian is also being discussed, as well as when the transfer of patients can begin, Szijjártó explained.
