Moldovan President Igor Dodon brought army officers onto the streets on June 13 to monitor the enforcement of the sanitary measures against coronavirus (COVID-19) for the second time since the epidemic outbreak in March, as the situation has deteriorated abruptly over the past couple of weeks.

The move comes as the number of newly reported infected people remained very high (366) for the second day in a row after peaking at 406 on June 11. The number of patients infected with COVID-19 who died on June 13 (13 patients) was the highest since the beginning of the epidemic. The number of active patients keeps rising.

On June 14 the newly reported cases eased to 281 but the number of active cases advanced to 4,711 — significantly up from the low of 3,084 cases on May 25. During the week of May 18-25 the number of active cases decreased and it seemed that the situation had come under control. But 10 days after the first wave of relaxation, on May 25, the number of new cases and the stock of active cases entered a visible upward trend.

Besides bringing army officers onto the streets to enforce social distancing and the wearing of face masks in public transportation and indoor public spaces, other restrictions have been imposed as well. Public transport in the capital Chisinau has been restricted to a few hours in the morning and in the evening, for instance. Public servants will start working under a partial working schedule, with half of them staying home for two weeks, alternatively.

But, generally, the relaxation measures announced in the past were not reversed and this generates major risks. Marketplaces and shopping malls remain open and restaurants will resume operations on June 15.

In a move that has been broadly criticised, Dodon sent a team of 75 soldiers to Moscow on June 14 to participate in the ceremony organised by Russia to celebrate the Victory Day ceremony deferred from May 9 during the pandemic. The 2020 Moscow Victory Day Parade is an upcoming military parade that will take place in Moscow's Red Square on 24 June 2020. There are over 520,000 COVID-19 infected people in Russia and the number is rising.