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| - Romanian Prime Minister Florin Citu on Wednesday fired his health minister over his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, dealing a severe blow to the country's centre-right coalition. "I decided to make a change at the top of the Health Ministry to make sure that trust in state institutions is preserved," Citu told reporters, without detailing why exactly Vlad Voiculescu was dismissed. State secretary Andreea Moldovan, a close ally of Voiculescu, was also fired. Citu's liberal party PNL and Voiculescu's USR/PLUS formed a governing coalition after parliamentary elections last December, together with Hungarian minority party UDMR. Voiculescu's sacking is the first rift in the newly formed governing coalition, with a break-up scenario being evoked by some leaders. "Prime Minister Citu no longer has our support," an irritated USR/PLUS chief Dan Barna told a press conference, calling for a coalition meeting. PNL leader Ludovic Orban expressed the hope that the coalition will not crumble, stressing that"good governance is more important than the name of a minister". In recent weeks PNL members publicly criticised Voiculescu for communication blunders and being ill-prepared at press conferences. On the other hand, supporters of the 37-year-old former activist for patients' rights praised him for showing transparency in publishing data about tests and vaccination centres. With a daily average of 4,000 new coronavirus cases and more than 100 deaths, Romania's healthcare system has struggled to cope with the third wave of the pandemic. Intensive care units are stretched to the limit, according to health officials, while the government has pledged to supplement the number of ICU beds. On Monday, three elderly Covid-19 patients died in a mobile intensive care unit in Bucharest after a malfunction in the oxygen supply system, while in January, a fire inside an ICU unit at a hospital in the capital killed five Covid-19 patients. ii/jza/pvh
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