State Secretary Ovidiu Burdușa conveyed the following message:

Ovidiu Burdușa, State Secretary for the Department of Romanians in Diaspora

” I noticed with quite a degree of sorrow that in our public space there are more and more negative messages in which Romanians attack one another for the very simple reason that some live here in Romania whilst others who chose to live abroad are now willing to return home. Instead of splitting up in separate parties, we should rather be in concord just in order to overcome this period of crisis. It is infinitely more important to be united, in solidarity and responsibility both for ourselves and for all those around us !
The Romanians in our country and those who are returning now, are praying for the same ideals: to feel healthy and to be together with their loved ones. It is often said that the Romanians who left their country they did so out of necessity. Now again, when they return home they do not do it because it is better here. It is only humane that in such hard moments we all wish to be home and HOME is Romania.
Attacking all those who are coming home in these hard time does not bestow upon us any kind of honour. Compassion, understanding and a helping hand are much more important in these moments compared to what these Romanians did in Italy, Spain or Germany, what work contract they had, where they lived and where they paid taxes.
At the same time, I urge all those Romanians coming from countries where there are numerous Covid-19 cases of contamination to do their utmost not to put in harm’s way those around them and in the country.
Please respect and follow the measures taken by the Romanian authorities, accept getting into quarantine or isolation, depending on each situation and according to the recommendation you receive at border points.
And don’t forget that doctors, medical assistants, Police and Foreign Office staff are making sisyphic efforts in order to detect on time contaminated persons, so as to keep under control the spread of Coronavirus. We all have this duty to support and aid them !”
In order to correctly inform the public and in real time, the Government of Romania, via the Authority for Digital Romania and the NGO Code for Romania , have launched on Monday 16 March 2020, the online platform COVID-19 Official News (stirioficiale.ro)
Translated from the Romanian by PAUL FARKAS