UPDATE President Iohannis tells elderly gov't not to enforce inhumane restrictions on them

President Klaus Iohannis on Tuesday criticised a proposal for the elderly to be quarantined, calling such measure inhumane and totalitarian.

"(...) That will not happen. It is unacceptable. We live in a free society, a society that protects itself in the case of the epidemic, but in no case will we come up with such totalitarian measures, if I may say so. I am telling the elderly: relax, no one comes to take you from home to quarantine, no one comes to impose inhumane things on you. When necessary, we will come up and explain to you what measures to take to protect you from this disease; in no way will the government impose such inhumane measures, which should be out of the question in a 21st century society," Iohannis told a news conference at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace on Tuesday after a session to assess measures for the management of the COVID-19 epidemic with members of the government.

He talked about the responsibility specialists should display.

"I had a counterexample of 'how not to' these days, from an institute that in fact is well respected. There was research that came up to explain what needs to be done. That is not acceptable. Not every institute, no matter how well respected it may be, can come up with its own plan and say - 'this will happen'," said Iohannis.

Iohannis referenced a the plan under which "someone proposed, for example, an aberrant measure - and aberrant is the operational word here - that people over the age of 65 be quarantined, even taken away from their home to certain quarantine areas."

He added that "such plans, poorly thought out and poorly presented, only cause public panic, but panic is the last thing we need."

"So, once again: everyone has to be responsible, including those from different scientific institutes, including people who are considered experts, because we cannot each have our own plan, we must have a plan for Romania, and on such plan we are working together with the Orban government," Iohannis concluded.