COVID-19 Response and Recovery Monthly Bulletin March 2021
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COVID-19 Response and Recovery Monthly Bulletin March 2021 The Office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator / United Nations Moldova can be contacted at the following email address [email protected] or phone number (+373 22) 220 045 1 COVID-19 Epi and Health situation update (Data as at 31 March unless stated otherwise) The total number of COVID-19 cases in the country The number of new cases has grown substantially has continued to accelerate and reached 230,241 at during March and reached a 7-day average of the end of March. The number increased further on 1,465 at the end of March compared to 1,291 at the first day of April and now stands at 231,756. the beginning of the month. The number of active cases increased for the first The 7-day average for the number of deaths increased few weeks of March and started to decrease substantially in March and currently stands at 42.71. towards the end of the Month. The number of The total number of deaths was 4,960 at the end of active cases at the end of March stood at 17,429. March and exceeded 5,000 on the first day of April. United Nations in the Republic of Moldova UN Moldova Monthly Bulletin - March 2021 | 2 The average number of very serious cases Overall, fifty-nine percent of all cases have been increased steadily in March, reaching 345 during recorded among women and 41% among men. the week of March 22-28. The total number of However, the proportion of all deaths between hospitalized patients with COVID-19 at the end of the two groups are approximately equal (50% the month was 4,167, out of which 331 were in each). very serios condition. Even though infections among people aged 60 At the end of March, the crude cumulative and over account for 30% of the total number incidence of cases per 100,000 population for the of cases, 80% of all deaths have been registered last 7,14 and 30 days was 295, 614, and 1,261, in this age group. The average age of patients respectively. All these numbers registered a who have died from the disease is 67.4. significant increase over the past month. The overall crude cumulative incidence of cases stood at 6,628 per 100,000 on the last day of March. United Nations in the Republic of Moldova UN Moldova Monthly Bulletin - March 2021 | 3 Chisinau is the most affected area with more than 15,000 cases per 100,000 population. Nine other areas have also passed the 5,000 cases per 100,000 population mark. Chisinau 15,205 Balti 7,189 Edinet 7,123 Ialoveni 7,061 Anenii Noi 6,899 Taraclia 6,489 Straseni 6,315 Cimislia 5,769 Transnistria region 5,272 Calarasi 5,137 The stringency of the public health response to As of March 31, a total of 40,321 COVID-19 the epidemic first increased in the beginning of vaccines have been administered. Overall, March and then slightly relaxed. Oxford’s 1.16% of the country’s population and 64% of Stringency Index reflects the rigor of lockdown healthcare staff has received at least one measures, including school and business vaccine dose. Over 70,000 vaccine doses remain closures, and restrictions on gatherings and free currently available for use. movement. United Nations in the Republic of Moldova UN Moldova Monthly Bulletin - March 2021 | 4 The number of cases in March increased by 75% The number of weekly cases increased over the compared to the previous montyh and reached last two weeks of March and reached 11,487 for 44,788. The number of deaths also nearly the week of Mar 22-28. This represents a 9% doubled. The monthly number of recoveries also increase compared to the previous week. Cases reflected the increase in cases and rose by more decreased slightly in the last days of the month. than 280%. The number of deaths and recoveries paralled the overall rise in cases. The contagion rate remained above 1 After peaking toward the beginning of March, the throughout the entire month of March. As of percentage of positive cases has decreased over March 28, the contagion rate stood at 1.04. The the course of the month. This decrease has also rate is uneven across regions, with the lowest coincided with a change of the reporting rates being registered in Cimislia (0.72) and the methodology on Mar 19. Starting then, reporting highest in Soroca (1.34). The contagion rate in has no longer disaggregated tests on whether Chisinau stood at 0.94. they were primary or subsequent. United Nations in the Republic of Moldova UN Moldova Monthly Bulletin - March 2021 | 5 1.1 Restrictions* *These are subject to changes and amendment and should be viewed as an overview and not as a definitive source for decision making. • A State of Emergency is declared by Parliament for 60 days (April 1- May 30). The law that defines the State of Emergency is here. • The first meeting of the Commission for Exceptional Situations, chaired by the Prime Minister ai., after the declaration of the State of Emergency occurred on April 1st. The Commission instituted a series of restrictions, i.e. a special regime for circulation of persons (circulation outside residence is banned between 23.00h-5.00h with some exceptions), a special working regime, i.e. enterprises need to ensure that only up to 30% of staff attends the offices, with some exceptions, all mass gatherings are banned, all state planned controls are postponed until after May 30 and others. The full list of restrictions taken can be found here in Decision No 1. 2 General situation update • As the statistics above show, March 2021 had the worst epidemiological trends for any month since the pandemic began. • Vaccination against COVID19 started March 2nd with vaccination of frontline workers in intensive care units in the first phase. As of 29 March, 37,070 workers from health care facilities and beneficiaries of the placement centers for elderly were vaccinated. • On March 4th Moldova was the recipient of the first COVAX deliveries into Europe with a further COVAX shipment arriving on March 19th. • March 7th was the one-year anniversary of the first COVID-19 case in the Republic of Moldova. 2.1 Political update • As decreed by the Constitutional Court, the President moved forward with consultations with each of the political parties for a second time, after the no confidence vote of her first proposed candidate. During these consultations, the candidate that had been put forward by the informal coalition of the Socialist Party and For Moldova Platform, Mariana Durlesteanu, withdrew her candidacy, which left them without a proposed candidate. Following the consultations, the President nominated the head of PAS, Igor Grosu, as her new candidate for Prime Minister. The Socialists answered her nomination with a promise to challenge his candidacy in the Constitutional Court. They also proposed a new candidate, the current ambassador to Russia, Vladimir Golovatiuc, for consideration. • On March 22, the Constitutional Court recognized the constitutional decree of President Maia Sandu on the appointment of Igor Grosu as a candidate for prime minister. The President of the Constitutional Court noted that the Constitution allows the president to nominate her own candidate if there is no formal majority in parliament to put forward a candidate. She further explained that the informal majority (Socialists and For Moldova platform) that had been formed to put forward Mariana Durlesteanu, ceased to exist when she withdrew her candidacy, and they had failed to properly declare itself as a formal majority ahead of nominating a new candidate. Thus, President Sandu’s candidate was the only candidate that was nominated according to the Constitution. • However, on the day that Grosu’s candidacy was to be discussed in Parliament, the Socialist Party and For Moldova Platform left the floor, creating a situation where there was no quorum for the vote. Subsequent to this action, the President submitted a request to the Constitutional Court to consider that all the United Nations in the Republic of Moldova UN Moldova Monthly Bulletin - March 2021 | 6 conditions had been met for early elections to be called. The Constitutional Court is currently reviewing the request and is expected to make a ruling later this week or early next week. • In a somewhat related occurrence, the Government has asked the Parliament to consider declaring a state of emergency. The state of emergency would strengthen measures and restrictions to address the COVID- 19 crisis, including postponing the organization of any elections during the state of emergency period. 2.2 Economic and social update • On March 25, the UN Moldova presented the Country Common Analysis which provides an in-depth analysis of the country’s socio-economic development and political context, along with critical challenges and their root causes. This analysis serves as a basis for priority setting within the UN and feeds into resource mobilization, development of cooperation partnerships, as well as projects' technical design contributing to sustainable development of the country. • According to the NBS, annual inflation in February almost tripled reaching 0.62%. The increase in consumers’ prices was pooled by the food prices (+1,80%) and by the non-food prices (1.15%) while services rendered to population maintained overall downward trend (-1.89%). • The NBS data reveal that the GDP contracted by 7% (in gross series) in 2020 being heavily affected by the drought and consequently more leading to more severe consequences than in the neighboring Romania and Ukraine where GDP dropped by 3.9% and .