August 12, 2021 UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 12.08.2021, 19:55

Covid-19 RO. Romania passed
on Thursday 370 daily Covid cases from 27,800 tests, a new daily record in
recent months. This is the third day in a row that the daily toll passes 300
cases. A third of new cases was recorded in Bucharest. Three related fatalities
were also reported. The number of Covid-19 patients receiving hospital
treatment is also on the rise, hitting 710, of whom almost 100 are in
serious condition. Only a little over 14,000 vaccine doses were administered on
Wednesday. Almost 5 million people are fully vaccinated in Romania. The
coordinator of the mass vaccination campaign Valeriu Gheorghita said herd
immunity resulting from vaccination and recovery from illness is now 50% in this country.

High-risk list. Romania on Thursday moved Turkey,
Israel and the US to the red list of countries with high epidemiological risk.
The Netherlands and Malta entered the yellow list, following a drop in
incidence rates. Estonia, Lithuania and Finland are also on the yellow list.

EU certificate. From Friday,
the digital certificate proving that a person has been vaccinated against
Covid-19, has received a negative test result
or has recovered from the infection becomes mandatory when crossing the border
of an EU member country. Otherwise, individuals will have to comply with the
national quarantine rules of each state. The Strategic Communication Group in
Bucharest explained that the presentation of the document is provided for in the
European Regulation on digital certificates on vaccination designed to
facilitate free movement during the pandemic, and the provisions are applicable
only for crossing the state border. In Romania, the certificate can be
downloaded by accessing the vaccinare-covid.gov.ro website.

Electricity. The
heat wave that has hit Romania in recent weeks has led to an increase in
domestic electricity consumption. The data provided by Transelectrica show that
consumption is covered by imports, not by domestic production. In recent weeks,
Romania has imported almost 1,000 megawatts per day. Also, data published by the National Institute of Statistics show that in
Romania, the final electricity consumption increased by 7% in the first six
months of the year, compared to the similar period of 2020, amid an increase of
8.3% of the population’s consumption.

Wildfires. Against
the background of very high temperatures, wildfires are wreaking havoc in
several European countries and North Africa. Dozens of outbreaks are active in
the southern continental regions and in Sicily, and in Greece nearly 100,000
hectares of land have been destroyed by flames in less than two weeks – the
worst after the devastating fires of 2007. On the island of Evia, where
Romanian fire fighters have also been helping, but also in the Peloponnese, where
new outbreaks are emerging, Greek and foreign fire fighters are making huge
efforts to contain them. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent in Greece,
thousands of houses have turned into piles of rubble and tens of thousands of
people have been forced to leave their homes and find refuge elsewhere.
Thousands of jobs dependent on local tourism, agriculture and forestry have
been lost. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis thanked President Klaus
Iohannis on Wednesday for the contribution of Romanian fire fighters, who
responded promptly to the call for help of the Greek authorities. The Romanian president
expressed Romania’s solidarity with the Greek people in these difficult times,
as well as compassion for all those affected by the devastating fires.

Defence. The Romanian
defence minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă on Thursday congratulated his counterpart
from the Republic of Moldova Anatolie Nosatîi in a telephone conversation for
taking office. The two official discussed the stage and prospects of bilateral
cooperation in the area of defence. They decided to continue dialogue with a
view to finding new projects of mutual interest, in order to consolidate the support
given by Romania to the modernisation and the consolidation of the operational
capacity and interoperability of Moldova’s armed forces. At the end of the
conversation, the Romanian minister extended the Moldovan official the
invitation to visit Romania in the coming period, which the latter accepted.

Theatre. More than 2,000
performers and crew from 38 different countries are expected to take part in
the Sibiu International Festival held between the 20th and the 29th
of August and one of the biggest events of its kind in the world, said the
festival’s director Constantin Chiriac on Thursday. He said the biggest
challenge for organisers is again the Covid-19 pandemic. The festival’s
highlights include the world premiere of a production entitled
SHAKESPEARE-BACH/ Le Main du Temps featuring Charlotte Rampling and Sonia
Wieder-Atherton. Rampling, one of the world’s greatest names in the world of
film and theatre, will also get a star on Sibiu’s Walk of Fame. (CM)