April 22, 2020
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 22.04.2020, 13:55
COVID-19 ROMANIA Romanias president Klaus Iohannis and Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, together with other members of the Cabinet, are discussing further measures to manage the Covid-19 epidemic. On Tuesday, the head of state thanked the Romanian citizens and churches for observing the measures imposed by authorities during the Easter celebrations. He said that a relaxation of restrictions was being considered after May 15th, provided the number of infections and deaths would drop. In turn, the Prime Minister gave assurances that any relaxation measure would target all citizens, including those aged over 65, adding that the document suggesting another three months of isolation for the elderly had nothing to do with the Government. The latest reports show that, in Romania, 9710 people have been infected with the new coronavirus, of whom 2400 have been cured, and 508 have died. The number of deaths among the Romanian citizens living abroad has reached 64, out of 950 infected, mostly in Italy and Spain.
SCHOOL Romanian pupils have resumed classes online, after the Easter break. On March 11th, all schools were shut, as a stage of emergency was declared in Romania, because of the Covid-19 pandemic. 8th and 12th graders will have a simplified curriculum for their examinations, covering the subject matters taught before March 11th. In an interview on the public TV station, Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said that freezing the school year was out of the question.
PANDEMIC The number of coronavirus infections at global level has exceeded 2.5 million, and the death toll stands at some 177 thousand, according to the latest report drawn up by Johns Hopkins University. Most cases have been reported in the US, more than 800 thousand, followed by Spain, Italy, France, Germany and Great Britain, with 150 to 200 thousand. Next come Turkey, Iran and China. On Tuesday, the number of deaths rose steeply in the US, up to some 2,750, which is a grim record for one day. Since the start of the pandemic, 45 thousand people have died of Covid-19 in the US. In Europe, in particular in the west, which was more severely hit, the situation is starting to get more stable, and many countries are considering a relaxation of restrictions. Spain will allow children under 14 to take walks, as of Sunday, and Italy will gradually resume all activities as of May 4th. On the other hand, the UN has drawn attention to the fact that the pandemic might result in famine for a large number of people and cause a global humanitarian crisis, due to the devastating economic repercussions.
EU FUNDS At the EU summit due on Thursday, the European Council and the European Commission will encourage the creation of a European re-launch fund, which will make the object of a subsequent proposal, in keeping with the common roadmap published on Tuesday night by the two institutions, France Presse reports. The 27 will gather on Thursday for the fourth summit held by videoconference since the start of the coronavirus outbreak. The new financial tool is aimed at providing several hundreds of billions of Euro. The Eurogroup President Mario Centeno spoke of a total ranging from 700 to 1,500 billion. The total value, the specific goals, the calendar and the nature of the investment efforts are still to be defined through a global relaunch plan, centered on the EU budget, the European Council and Commission said.
OIL On Wednesday, a plunge was recorded in the Brent oil prices, which is a terrible blow for the North Sea industry. The price on the Asian markets dropped below 17 dollars, following the collapse in global crude oil prices led by the US. According to an economy analyst, quoted by France Presse, the current negative feelings will keep oil prices very low in the short term, until economic activities start resuming. The chaos on the oil market shows that there is no more demand for physical oil and also no storage room. Oil traders are faced with big problems trying to find ships, trains and pipelines to stock the fuels. Dozens of oil tanks have been rented in the past days to store at least 30 million barrels of fuel.
STATISTICS In 2018, in the EU, 17% of the population was living in overcrowded households, which means an insufficient number of rooms against the number of members living there, data published by Eurostat on Wednesday show. Top of the list in this classification is Romania, where, two years ago, some 46% of the population was living in the said conditions. Other EU member countries that are in a similar situation are Latvia, Bulgaria, Croatia and Poland. At the opposite pole, the countries with the lowest overcrowding rates include Cyprus, Ireland, Malta and the Netherlands. (M.Ignatescu)
