August 22, 2020 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 22.08.2020, 19:29

Corona Ro — The health minister Nelu Tataru said Saturday that Romania was on a stabilizing trend of the Cvoid-19 pandemic evolution but rules and regulations still need to be observed to get the pandemic on a downward trend. 1,189 new cases of infection with SARS-CoV2 have been reported in Romania as compared to the latest report published, following tests conducted at national level, the Strategic Communication Group informed on Saturday. More than 77,500 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Romania so far and more than 35,000 patients have recovered. The total death toll stands at 3,233. As to the Romanian citizens from abroad, over 5,900 have been confirmed with COVID-19 and 124 have died. In another development, the Romanian Foreign Ministry announced that the Romanians transiting Serbia in less than 12 hours are no longer obliged to produce a COVID-19 test. The decision made by the Serbian authorities also applies to the citizens coming from Bulgaria, Croatia and Northern Macedonia. Also excepted from the obligation to produce a negative COVID-19 test are cross-border workers who hold documents attesting to their activity and transporters whose final destination is Serbia or who take over merchandise from that state.

Corona world — Over 23.1 million cases of coronavirus infection have been confirmed around the world, according to worldometers.info, with almost 800 thousand deaths reported. A quarter of the total number of cases, that is more than 5.6 million, have been reported in the US where the death toll reached almost 175,000, show data provided by the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine. The hardest hit country in Latin America is Brazil followed by Peru, Mexico and Columbia. The worst situation in Asia is reported in India with almost 2.9 million cases of contamination and 55 thousand deaths. In Europe there are fears of a second wave of the pandemic. Spain has registered for several days in a row more than 3 thousand new cases and the authorities have urged the population in the affected areas to stay at home. In Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy and the Czech Republic the infection rate has grown significantly. Croatia announced the re-introduction, as of August 24, of several restrictions aimed at containing the spread of the pandemic. The World Health Organization says the pandemic should come to an end in less than two years because countries hold the technology allowing them to find efficient treatments.

PSD — Marcel Ciolacu was elected on Saturday president of the main opposition party in Romania, PSD, which holds the majority in Parliament, during an extraordinary congress when the party elected its leadership. The former interim leader of the PSD got 1,310 votes while his challenger, the former finance minister Eugen Teodorovici got only 91 votes. The new leader of the Social Democrats said he wanted a different approach both within and outside the party. The PSD extraordinary congress adopted changes and additions to the party statute. One of the main changes refers to the name of the National Executive Committee which will be replaced by the National Political Council. Another change stipulates that the president of the PSD National Council is elected by the congress to the leadership team proposed by a motion. Also the president will preside at the Council meetings and will coordinate the activity of departments, forums, leagues and associations set up within the party at national level.

Festival — The Romanian documentaries “Holy Father” and “Acasa, My Home” received prizes at this year’s edition of the International Film Festival in Sarajevo which took place between 14th and 21st of August. Acasa, My Home, a co-production of Romania, Germany and Finland directed by Radu Ciorniciuc received the Human Rights Award being the best film treating this subject. In the same category, Holy Father by Andrei Dăscălescu received the Special Jury Award. The Heart of Sarajevo Award for best documentary went to the film Merry Christmas Yiwu, a coproduction of Sweden, Serbia, Germany, France, Belgium and Qatar directed by the Serb Mladen Kovačević. In the official feature film competition, the best feature film award went to the coproduction Exile (Germany-Belgium- Kosovo) directed by Kosovar Visat Morina. (update by L. Simion)