Sports arenas in Romania to open to 25pct capacity to vaccinated, negative testing spectators

Minister of Youth and Sports Eduard Novak told a news conference on Wednesday that from Thursday, sports arenas in Romania will open to a 25% capacity to spectators vaccinated against COVID-19 or testing negative for the coronavirus, agerpres reports.

Novak explained that for outdoor competitions, organisers will not have to send written requests to his ministry and the Ministry of Health. However, this condition will apply to organisers who want to allow spectators access to indoor competitions.

"More than a year has passed in which the Romanian sport has suffered a lot, it has been really closed, thousands of athletes could not train. And sports do not exist without supporters. The fans have been waiting, unfortunately, for a year and a half for the chance to enter the stadiums again to be with their teams, teams that have lost a lot of money due to this pandemic. Today, May 19, is a day when we announce that 25% of the arena's capacity will be free for spectators to enter. That is, the organisers must comply with those procedures and regulations, but without sending requests to my ministry and to the Ministry of Health. For all outdoor sports competitions, this percentage of 25% for spectators can be applied from tomorrow without any problems. For the capacity to exceed 25% we need the requests from the organizers to us. That is fantastic news for the Romanian sports, for all of us. Fans have to be vaccinated, in their 10th day after full vaccination, or have a 72-hour PCR test or a 24-hour antigen test. Quick tests can also be taken at the stadiums, of course. We are talking about a mass of 6 million spectators and almost 70,000 athletes participating in competitions," said Novak.

"For the indoor competitions, ministerial approvals are still needed, but we hope to soon unblock this situation as well. So the capacity for gyms will also be 25%, conditional on filling the request to us. I think bureaucracy will take about 7-10 days in such case. This order will be published in the Official Journal today," Novak added.

He said that the joint order of the minister of youth and sports and the health minister also provides for repealing the mandate of testing athletes already vaccinated against COVID-19.

Sports competitions in Romania have been held without spectators in the stands since the spring of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.