August 28, 2020 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 28.08.2020, 19:46

COVID-19 – Romania has reported 1,318 new cases
of SARS-CoV-2 in the past 24 hours, the Strategic Communication Group has
announced. 48 new fatalities have been reported bringing the total death toll
to 3,507. Since the beginning of the pandemic Romania has reported a total of
84,468 cases while 37,056 patients have been declared healed. 8,797 people are
presently in home isolation while 30,877 people have been quarantined at home.
497 patients are in intensive care units. 6,589 Romanian nationals abroad have
been confirmed positive, most of them in Germany, Italy and Spain. 126 of these
have died so far. According to the country’s Health Minister Nelu Tataru, there
is no need for additional restrictive measures in Romania as the number of
infections is on a downward trend.

PANDEMIC – Over 24.6 million COVID infections
have been reported around the world with a death toll that exceeds 830 thousand
according to worldometers.info. The largest number of cases has been reported
in the USA and Brazil. Data released by the John Hopkins University shows that
the death toll in the USA is presently exceeding 180 thousand. According to
AFP, although the number of infections has been going down in the past weeks,
the country is far from overcoming the medical crisis. Brazil has reported 3.75
million cases, while the official death toll exceeds 188 thousand. Several
European states, including France, Spain and Germany, are reintroducing health
safety measures, against the backdrop of a resurge in the number of infections,
ahead of the start of a new school year. Hungary will close down its borders to
foreign tourists on September 1, with certain exceptions.

ELECTION – The campaign for the local election due on September 27th
has officially kicked off in Romania. The election, which was initially
scheduled to take place in June, has been postponed due to the pandemic. Campaign
teams and candidates are going to wear masks during both outdoor and indoor
meetings. Indoor meetings will be attended by 50 people at the most, whereas
the number of participants in the outdoor events should not exceed 100 people.

MEETING – Over August 27-28, Romania’s Foreign
Minister Bogdan Aurescu attended the informal meeting of the EU foreign
ministers in Berlin, held under the EU’s German presidency. As part of talks
regarding Turkey, the Romanian diplomat expressed concern with the rising
tension in the Eastern Mediterranean, calling for calm and dialogue between all
involved parties. He expressed solidarity with Greece and Cyprus and expressed
support for EU efforts to de-escalate tensions and resume dialogue with Turkey.
As a first step, Minister Aurescu suggested introducing a standstill agreement
on exploration in the disputed area pending a clear delimitation, either via
negotiations or by referring the matter to the International Court of Justice.
On the other hand, Bogdan Aurescu called for a firm, coherent, coordinated and
comprehensive policy to obtain results in relations with the Russian
Federation, which remains a strategic challenge for the EU and Member States.
The 27 EU Foreign Ministers agreed on instating sanctions on some 20 officials close
to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, the EU High Representative for
Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell has said. The measures are targeting
high-ranking officials involved in rigging the August 9 election and repressing
the ensuing street protests.

STATISTICS – On January 1st this year
Romania had a resident population of 19,318,000, 96,500 less as compared to the
same period last year – a communiqué issued by the National Institute for
Statistics (INS) shows, confirming the deepening phenomenon of population
aging. According to the same sources, the main cause of this demographic slump
is the negative population growth, as the number of deceased has exceeded the
number of births by 73,630. According to the Institute, Romania continues to be
a country with a large number of emigrants, which is the second cause of this
demographic slump.

ENESCU CONTEST – The prestigious George Enescu
international music contest kicks off on Saturday. The competition is unfolding
online this year, due to coronavirus restrictions. 205 young musicians from 39
countries have enrolled, of whom 184 are competing in the violin, cello and
piano competitions, and 21 are taking part in the composition section. The
opening event is hosted by the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest in front of an
empty hall. As a premiere, Dan Dediu’s Triple Concert for violin, cello and
piano, dubbed The Brahmsodhy, will be performed, in addition to Alexandru
Stefan Murariu’s Concert for clarinet and orchestra, a work that scooped First
Prize in the 2018 edition of the contest. The concert will be broadcast live on
festivalenescu.ro by the public TV station and Radio Romania Music. Prizes this
year stand at €100.000.

FOOTBALL – In Thursday’s first preliminary round
of Europa League, FC Botosani won 2-1 against FC Ordabasy of Kazakhstan away
from home, while FCSB defeated FC Shirak of Armenia 3-nil at home. Romania’s
vice-champions, CS Universitatea Craiova, were ousted 1-2 in Georgia by FC
Locomotive Tbilisi. The matches were played in a one-leg only system. On
Wednesday, on home turf, CFR Cluj was ousted in the Champions League second
preliminary round after losing the faceoff with Dinamo Zagreb at the penalty
shootout. CFR will next play in Europa League. The draw for the next phase will
be held next week.

(Translated by D. Bilt & V. Palcu)