April 23, 2021 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 23.04.2021, 20:05

COVID-19 The way out of the COVID-19 pandemic is
mass vaccination, the president of Romania Klaus Iohannis said on Friday. He
added that containment measures will be eased out as the number of SARS-CoV-2
infections, of patients in ICUs and of COVID-related fatalities decreases. On
Thursday, at the end of the first meeting of an inter-ministry committee
working to ensure Romania’s return to normal as of June 1, PM Florin Cîțu said
in his turn that the return to normal life is conditional on vaccination. The
number of people who have received at least one vaccine dose in Romania is now
over 2.9 million. Meanwhile, the authorities announced on Friday over 2,500 new
infections in 24 hours, and 170 COVID-related deaths. Another 1,391 patients
are in intensive care. Three counties in Romania, Bucharest, Ilfov in the
south-east and Cluj in the centre, are still in the red zone, with little over
4 COVID cases per thousand inhabitants, while the other counties report rates
below 3 per thousand.

MEETING The Romania-Poland-Turkey trilateral
meeting works very well, and its relevance and effectiveness have grown
significantly, contributing in its 9 years of existence, to strengthening the
North-Atlantic Alliance and to ensuring security in the eastern flank,
including the Black Sea region, the Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu
said. The Romanian official took part on Friday in the plenary session of the
meeting, alongside his counterparts from Poland, Zbigniew Rau and Turkey,
Mevlut Cavuşoglu. At the end of the meeting, the 3 foreign ministers signed a
joint declaration, for the first time since the trilateral meeting has been
held. Today the participants tackled security-related topics, with a focus on
the regional situation, on the outcomes of the latest NATO minister-level
meetings and on the prospects for this year’s summit of the Alliance. The 3
countries’ officials emphasised on Friday that they would like NATO to be a
stronger political and military player, with global reach. The participants also discussed the progress
in implementing the projects selected in the 2020 trilateral meeting and the
ways to strengthen trilateral dialogue, including by developing new projects.
During the trilateral meeting Romania’s Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu hosted
a special working session attended by the Foreign Ministers of Georgia, David
Zalkaliani and Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba, where he underlined Romania’s firm
support for the two countries in their efforts to come close to the Euro-Atlantic
structures.

ECONOMY All EU member countries ended the year 2020
with budget deficit. According to Eurostat, Romania was among the states with the
highest deficit figures, 9.2% of GDP, double the level reported the previous
year. Eurostat preliminary data point to a skyrocketing budget deficit EU-wide,
from 0.5% of GDP in 2019 to 6.9% last year. The highest levels, ranging between
11% and 9.5%, were reported in Spain, Malta, Greece, Italy, Belgium and France.
Denmark is the only country with a reported budget deficit below 3%.

TENNIS Romanian tennis player Sorana Cirstea has
made it to the semi-finals of the tennis tournament in Istanbul after her opponent
Belgian Fiona Ferro withdrew at the beginning of the second set on Friday.
Cirstea won the first set 6-4 and will be up against Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine
for a place in the finals.

(bill)