Romania’s Liberal government has come under pressure from the Social Democrat opposition, which is planning to file a no-confidence motion after a rapid rise in new coronavirus (COVID-19) cases. 

On July 26 at 13:00, Romania reported 1,120 people newly infected with coronavirus (COVID-19) identified in the last 24 hours. The figure was 1,284 the day before after it passed the 1,000 mark recently, continuing an upward trend.

The number of tests was just under 16,000, resulting in an infection rate of 7%, above the 5% seen as the red line.

The number of patients in intensive care rose to 345, and 22 people died in the 24 hours since the previous report. 

The head of Romania's main opposition party, the Social Democratic Party (PSD), Marcel Ciolacu, urged the government to come up with details about how it plans to address the coronavirus pandemic that "seems to have got out of control”.

He urged Prime Minister Ludovic Orban to inform the parliament whether the local elections should be postponed and about the government's strategy for opening schools. PSD spokesman Lucian Romascanu said that the party would come up with a prime minister candidate, a government formula, and a ruling strategy before filing a no-confidence motion.

The PSD plans to file a no-confidence motion against the government when the state of alert expires, namely around mid-August (unless it is further prolonged).

"We are able, until the motion is passed, to submit a proposal for a prime minister, a government, and an economic programme for this period to the president," said Romascanu.

The rise in coronavirus infections triggered restrictions enforced by local administrations, as well as by foreign countries for Romanians willing to travel.

Faget, a town in Timis county, western Romania, is the first city placed under quarantine under the new legislation. More are likely to follow it as the number of people infected with COVID-19 has been rising fast in recent days.

A final decision on quarantining Mioveni, where the Dacia car plant is located, and Pitesti, a bigger city close to it where part of the workers live, is expected on July 27.

In response to the rising number of infections in the country, Cyprus forbade the entry of visitors from Romania.

Greece requested all those coming from Romania to have a valid negative test no older than 72 hours (for those arriving by plane, the requirement has been waived so far).

Italy also set a 14-day quarantine period for those coming from Romania.

This is only the latest wave of restrictions targeting travellers from Romania due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the country.

Other countries, including Austria (10-day quarantine period), Hungary (two negative tests), Slovakia, and the Baltic states, have also set restrictions for Romanian tourists.