Masked Santa lifts spirits for Romanian COVID-19 patients

Ionut Ivan, a 40-year-old nurse, dressed in red Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and wearing a red hat and a makeshift cotton beard poses for a picture next to Brindusa Gheorghiu, a patient suffering from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in the ICU of the Marius Nasta Pneumology Institute, in Bucharest, Romania December 22, 2020. Picture taken December 22, 2020. Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea via REUTERS

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romanian nurse Ionut Ivan has spent the last nine months caring for so many coronavirus patients he has lost count.

But that has not dimmed his enthusiasm for bringing some festive cheer, dressing up as Santa Claus and distributing fruit and sweets to the almost 100 COVID-19 patients currently hospitalised at the Marius Nasta institute in Bucharest.