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BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) – Hundreds of Romanians, adding up many families with young children, protested Saturday in the country’s capital against measures to curb the spread of coronavirus, social estating and mandatory use of masks in schools.
As in European countries, the number of new instances of the virus has soared in recent days in Romania, with a record 1,713 previous instances this week and 1,333 more on Saturday. In total, Romania has recorded 111,550 cases of COVID-19, with 4,402 deaths recorded.
Some 2. 8 million Romanian schoolchildren began their school year on Monday, with categories in class, online or a mixture of both, depending on the intensity of the pandemic in a given region. The offices must be at least one meter away, the mask will have to be worn by primary and secondary teachers, and the study rooms are disinfected daily.
Protesters in Bucharest University Square shouted out against President Klaus Iohannis and Prime Minister Ludovic Orban and drew parallels between pandemic cover measures and communist and Nazi regimes. One of the speakers at the demonstration compared the measures to the torture of communist dissidents.
A giant poster wearing a protester included a recent quote from Iohannis about security measures: “Children get used to unpleasant things without problems,” on top of a photograph of young people with barbed cords in a concentration camp.
Protesters highlighted the symbolism of the rally in University Square, where the 1989 protests against dictator Nicolae Ceausescu led to the fall of his communist regime.
Only police and media members wore masks at the event, where attendees, many of whom wore Romanian flags, also violated the rules of social est breach.
Local elections scheduled for June, but postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, will be held on September 27 to vote for mayors and councillors across the country. Romania is also expected to hold parliamentary elections by the end of the year.
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