April 27, 2020

A roundup of domestic and international news

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Newsroom, 27.04.2020, 13:55

Covid-19 Romania — The Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Monday called a new meeting to deal with measures aimed at managing the coronavirus pandemic. Attending are the PM Ludovic Orban, the health, interior and education ministers as well as other officials. The authorities are preparing to re-start the economy, mainly through investments. The PM said the government could grant incentives to private companies that make investments during this period of crisis. 60 days after the first case of Covid-19 was registered in Romania, latest reports show that 11,300 people have tested positive for Covid-19 and 631 have died. The latest data provided by Strategic Communication Group show that over 3 thousand people have recovered from the infection. In the Diaspora, more than 1,500 Romanian citizens have been infected mostly in Italy and Spain and 75 have died.

Covid-19 world — All over the world, almost 3 million people are infected with the new coronavirus, according to the US University Johns Hopkins. Most cases have been reported in the US, which is followed by countries from Europe: Spain, Italy, France, Germania and Great Britain. Equally affected by the pandemic are Turkey, Iran, China and Russia. The death toll has exceeded 206 thousand, with 54 thousand dead only in the US. Despite the situation, several states are getting ready to relax restrictions: in Italy economic activity is going to be partly resumed while preserving protection measures in public. People movement remains restricted, schools will open only in autumn and Italian churches will stay closed. France is preparing regional relaxation strategies starting with May 11. A system will be implemented by means of mobile phones, to warn people against getting in contact with an infected person.

Romanian Academy – A study conducted by sociologists with the Life Quality Research Institute within the Romanian Academy shows that Romania is faced with two crises in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: a medical and economic crisis respectively, and that the living standards will be affected mainly after the medical crisis ends. The report shows that people will have the same purchasing power that they had before the crisis only in 5 years’ time. Researchers recommend the authorities to abrogate or prorogate the pension law adopted in 2019, among others, to index-link the pension point with the inflation rate, to raise salaries only to compensate for the inflation rate and to reintroduce a unitary national salary grid for the local administration

Agriculture — All autumn crops, especially those in the north and south of Romania, have been affected by the drought, the agriculture minister Adrian Oros has announced. According to data provided by the line ministry, 3 million hectares of the crops sown in autumn have already been affected. At present, only 10% of the farming land can be irrigated. The agriculture minister Adrian Oros promised that farmers will receive damages to cover for the losses caused by the drought.

TAROM – The Romanian state-owned airline TAROM has announced it will resume flights as of May 2. The first destination will be Amsterdam and in the next days flights will be operated to such destinations as Athens, Paris and Frankfurt. The Romanian low-cost company Blue Air has also announced resuming flight operation. They reintroduced in the booking system flights from Romania to several cities in Romania and Europe that will be operated as of mid May. The Romanian government approved during Thursday’s meeting granting aid funds to help the two Romanian companies. They had previously asked for 130 million Euros worth of aid to be able to overcome the coronavirus crisis. (tr. L. Simion)