Moldovan president participates in weekly meeting with country's top leadership

Chisinau, 9 March /MOLDPRES/ - The today’s meeting of President Igor Dodon with Parliament Speaker Zinaida Greceanii and Prime Minister Ion Chicu was fully dedicated to the actions for preventing the spread of coronavirus. The officials discussed the last developments and made more demands to institutions, the presidential press service has reported.       

After the meeting, the head of state made the following statements:

„1. As for the way the authorities acted, it is early for us to give marks; we are in the beginning of the crisis; the situation is kept under control and the authorities take maximal efforts to detect any person who interacted with the patient who has been already confirmed with coronavirus. We have everybody seen that the situation went out of control in more advanced countries and with much better logistic endowments than ours, especially Italy, from where our confirmed case also comes. Yet, even there, they consider that the authorities do their job and are backed in their fight with this virus. The number of cases has grown alarmingly in the neighbor countries too; it was expected for our country not to be avoided and we must be realistic and expect new cases, at the appearance of which we should, however, react promptly and in accordance with the recommendations by the World Health Organization (WHO).   

2. I want to convey a quite clear message to the entire society and I include here also the politicians from all parties: the fight against the coronavirus is not of a single person or of a party, but of the entire country. Each of us can contribute to the limiting of the virus’ spreading and it is a full falsehood for us to imagine that the government will lead this alone this fight, which depends on the responsibility of each citizen. The authorities have their important area of responsibility and if those who return from Italy or other countries hit do not go to doctor, do not respect the authorities’ demands, the spread of the virus will not be able to be controlled properly. Therefore, I appeal to maximal responsibility and sincerity on behalf of each person who comes from the zones hit or has symptoms related to the virus. Call the physician urgently; do not endanger the lives of your close people and of numerous persons with who you interact! The regrets will not help anybody, after you find out how many people you have endangered, because you did not do an elementary gesture, the one of calling the doctor.         

3. In this context, I warn all people who, by their irresponsible behavior, endanger the life and health of other citizens, that they will answer before the law, they will pay fines; yet, they can also be sanctioned in another way, if decision-makers prove that, by what they did deliberately, without informing the authorities, they generated new disease cases and, God forbid, eventual deaths. The same message of turning responsible before the law is also addressed to the civil servants; they must fulfill their duty with maximal professionalism and should not allow actions which can lead to the spread of the virus. I have already asked the authorities to prove maximal firmness with those who do not observe the rules; we can resort to the forcible isolation of those who refuse this voluntarily and endanger the residents. Just as in the case of Italy, Romania or other countries, we can get to the taking of measures of isolation just at the border, if the rules on the prevention of the virus’ spreading are not observed. This is an alarming situation and we do not rule out that we will have to take special measures, as our role is to protect the entire population, to help those who appeal to doctor for help, not to deal tactfully with those who mislead the authorities and contribute to the spread of the virus.        

4. I would like to convey another message to the politicians from all parties, who take advantage of this crisis. Cease making PR at the expense of this world drama and at the expense of the Moldovans’ natural fear; do not make shows on the Facebook, no longer offend the medical staff. By such an attitude, you get to be even more noxious for the citizens than coronavirus! Politics has nothing to do with this crisis.   

5. Not in the least, I want to address all companies, which by their work, supply products which help combat the contamination with the new virus. Either we speak about drug stores, companies which sell disinfectants or other types of companies. I appeal to decency and solidarity with the citizens; do not try to enrich yourselves at the expense of the scared people; do not increase the prices in an unjustified way; simply be people, before being businesspeople. Such a behavior will be appreciated, first of all, by your clients, the citizens who presently need your help. Just today, I will have discussions with employees of the Interior Ministry, State Fiscal Service and other institutions, so that, on the immediately next period, they start massive controls to detect speculative actions. If some people think that the current legislation cannot sanction these speculative actions, we will do additional laws urgently for these deeds.      

6. I think that the point in which we are now is very important, when we must make our mind whether we fight together, i. e. each citizens with his/her possibilities, in order to maximally limit the spread of the coronavirus or just look at the authorities to see how they fight with those who did not go to doctor in time, how the authorities consume precious time then to detect those who possibly interacted with them, instead of being able to focus on preventive measures. All of us are responsible for the way this crisis will be managed and I assure you that the authorities will do their job with high professionalism; I will permanently monitor the evolution of this crisis and will intervene where necessary.    

7. At the same time, I appeal to calm; panic must be avoided; it does nothing but worsens the things. We are not in a serious situation and we can even not get to this situation, if we preserve calm and act reasonably, observing the rules communicated by the authorities. At the same time, it is important for us to show care and sympathy, full understanding for the people in whom coronavirus can be confirmed, for the people in quarantine, fully observe their rights and help them recover as soon as possible.        

This is a moment when we face an important challenge as people and I hope that our solidarity will be the first important vaccine against the coronavirus!”