Specialists of the National Public Health Agency say the rise in the number of infections with the novel coronavirus is due to the higher number of people who seek medical assistance and also to the increase in the number of examinations of persons who ask for medical assistance and meet the criteria defining a suspect case of COVID-19, IPN reports.

“Yes, during the last four days we had a significant rise in the number of new cases of COVID-19. If we refer to the figures, on February 4 we had 982 cases of COVID-19, 35% of the primary tests being positive. On February 3, we had 917 cases, with 30% of the primary tests being positive. On February 2, there were 639 cases, with 27% of the tests being positive. The epidemiological situation related to COVID-19 remains unfavorable in the Republic of Moldova. There is an upward tendency. The new cases in the municipality of Chisinau rose by 40-45% in number the last few days,” the head of the Flu and ARI Epidemiological Supervision Division of the National Public Health Agency Ștefan Gheorghiță stated in an interview for RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service.

According to the specialist, the number of active cases increases in parallel with the rise in the number of infections. Furthermore, the number of serious cases has also grown. On February 3, these represented 23%, on February 4 - 24% and the number of intubated persons remains constant, with 48 intubated persons yesterday.

Ștefan Gheorghiță said that another moment that explains the rise in the number of cases is the non-observance of the protection measures. Some of the measures are not obeyed in organizations, shopping centers. In markets, the people became more active. There is crowdedness in public transport during rush hour. But the people should not relax if they want to be healthy and not to endanger their family, close relatives.

As to the new stems identified recently, including the modified one detected in the UK, the specialist said the transmission ways and also the prevention, prophylaxis measures remained the same, as did the treatment and diagnosis methods. The stem in the UK is more aggressive.

The number of infections with the novel coronavirus in Moldova rose to 163,400, while the death toll from COVID-19 stands at 3 515.