Faced with a rising Covid-19 infection rate and mortality, Romania is asking for Hungary’s help to relive pressure on its overburdened healthcare system, Romanian radio station Europa FM reports.
It is currently the only country with which Romania discusses moving some critically ill patients.
Hungary has offered to help Romania, and discussions so far have shown that the transfer can only be done by ambulance.
So, depending on the capacities that hospitals in Hungary can offer Romania, seriously ill people will be transferred from counties near the border.
Transfers cannot be made by plane due to the danger posed by the oxygen cylinders to which those with major pulmonary insufficiency, the main disease of Covid-19, are connected, official sources told Europa FM.
On Tuesday evening, the National Committee for Emergency Situations (CNSU) also approved the purchase of 500 high-capacity oxygen pumps.
Hungarian news portal Mandiner contacted the press department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, asking how many patients Hungarian hospitals plan to receive, to which institutions and how they would transport Covid-19 patients. The ministry replied that “Péter Szijjártó offered Hungary a letter over the weekend offering help for coronavirus patients. Negotiations are currently underway between the Romanian and Hungarian sides on the specific form of assistance.”
Szijjártó also offered assistance to Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu after last week’s hospital fire in Constanta, which claimed seven lives.
“If it is necessary to care for patients, the capacities of the Hungarian health care system are there, so they can count on us,” Szijjártó wrote in a post published on his social network account on Saturday.
