Constanța-Poarta Albă Penitentiary (visit by alternative means), the management of the penitentiary unit facilitated and ensured meetings of the NPM team through Skype with the persons in custody, in privacy, in a specially arranged space for online calls, equipped with computer, headphones and microphone; also, the management of the Săpunari Psychiatric Hospital facilitated in optimal conditions the access of the NPM team to the video surveillance system from the common spaces of the hospital; During the monitoring of the Techirghiol Spa and Recovery Sanatorium, it was found that the Institution of the Prefect of Constanța County sent to the sanatorium the NPM brochure intended for persons placed in quarantine. The same cannot be said about the management of some Covid-19 hospitals, which refused to comply with the NPM’s requests (they expressly refused or ignored the NPM's letters)2, and a virulent media attack was launched against the Ombudsperson and the Deputy Ombudsperson, head of the NPM. Also, high representatives of the Government and the Prime Minister publicly requested that the NPM withdraw its requests for information and documents sent to these hospitals, arguing that the assimilation of these institutions with places of detention would be a distortion of reality, and a comparison done in bad faith of situations that have nothing in common. All these actions demonstrated the ignorance or lack of knowledge of the Conventions and Protocols on the prohibition and prevention of torture, to which Romania is a party, including by the Government which must be the guarantor of their observance; ignorance or lack of knowledge of the national legal provisions by which Romania undertook to establish the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture and to ensure its access to: all information on the number of persons deprived of liberty in places of detention, as well as the number of such places and their location; all information regarding the treatment applied to those persons, as well as the conditions of detention; all places of detention and their installations and facilities. NPM members should have the opportunity to meet with persons deprived of their liberty without witnesses, as well as with anyone who can provide relevant information and the freedom to choose the places they want to visit and the people they want to have meetings with. In these circumstances, the MNP appealed to the provisions of the OPCAT3 and addressed the SPT, requesting its support and an official point of view to assist the NPM in the exercise of its mandate. The response of the SPT was prompt, Mr. Daniel Fink, SPT member and leader of the Regional Team for Europe, addressing His Excellency M. Adrian Cosmin Vierița, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Permanent Mission of Romania to the United Nations Office at Geneva and International Organizations based in Switzerland, reiterating the provisions of the aforementioned SPT Opinions and emphasizing that in accordance with Art. 20 of the Optional Protocol, national preventive mechanisms shall have access to all data, including relevant medical documents, records and other information necessary for the prevention of inhuman or degrading treatment in places where Expressly refused the monitoring: the National Institute of Infectious Diseases “Prof. Dr. Matei Balș” and the Clinical Hospital for Infectious and Tropical Diseases “Dr. Victor Babeș” Did not answer: Constanța Infectious Diseases Clinical Hospital; Central Military Emergency University Hospital «Dr. Carol Davila» Bucharest - ROL2-COVID-19 level, military field hospital; Military Emergency Hospital «Dr. Alexandru Gafencu» Constanța - Modular medical isolation and treatment system. COVID-19 isolation and quarantine camp; Policlinico di Monza Medical Center - "Monza Metropolitan Hospital" branch; Medgidia Municipal Hospital; Pucioasa City Hospital; Caritas Municipal Hospital Roșiori de Vede; Colentina Clinical Hospital. 2 art. 11 lit. b) pct. (ii): SPT menţine contactul direct şi, dacă este necesar, confidenţial cu mecanismele naţionale de prevenire şi oferă acestora pregătire profesională şi asistenţă tehnică pentru a le consolida capacităţile. 3 5