Romanian Health Minister Victor Costache resigned on Thursday morning, apparently after his promise to screen all residents in Bucharest, the country capital, for coronavirus was exposed as unrealistic.
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Prime Minister Ludovic Orban acknowledged Costache’s resignation in a statement and named former senator Nelu Tataru as his successor.
According to local reports, Orban asked Costache to step down after his pledge on Wednesday to send out mobile teams to screen the entire population of Bucharest for the coronavirus.
To make good on that promise, Romania would have to source between two to four million virus testing kits. The country produces only around 2,000 every day.
Broadcaster Digi24 calculated that at the present rate of production it would take more than seven years to produce enough tests to screen the whole population of the Romanian capital.
By Thursday, figures from Johns Hopkins University showed Romania had confirmed 1,029 coronavirus cases and 17 deaths in the country of 19.5 million inhabitants.