Chirtoaca says term for issuing health certificates to students too short

Chisinau Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca considers that the family doctors in the capital city will not manage to issue the students with certificates showing that they are not infected with the A (H1N1) flu virus within three days. The term set by the Ministry of Health is too short given that there are over 100,000 school students plus university students and kindergarten children, the mayor said at the ordinary meeting of the City Hall on August 17, Info-Prim Neo reports. It would be much more efficient if the doctors of the education institutions and the class masters monitor the students at school. They know better where the students spent the vacation and if they have been to countries affected by the pandemic flu. The students should be monitored during seven days, which is the incubation period of the virus, Dorin Chirtoaca said. The mayor instructed the Health Division head Mihai Moldovanu to formulate proposals for the Health Ministry. “It is impossible for the doctors to consult thousands of children in only three days,” Dorin Chirtoaca said. He ordered that every preschool and pre-university education institution purchase liquid soap and hand driers. The costs will be covered with the budgetary allocations for these institutions, not by the parents. Fifty-two cases of A (H1N1) flu virus have been reported in Moldova. The presence of the virus was confirmed in 6 cases.