December 30, 2020 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 30.12.2020, 19:57
Government. The government in Bucharest on Wednesday passed the Emergency Ordinance extending the granting of support measures for companies affected by the coronavirus pandemic and other aid schemes for the sectors that have encountered the biggest problems. Prime Minister Florin Cîţu announced that the salaries and bonuses of central and local public administration staff, including those holding public office, will remain at the level of those of December 2020. In total, the measures stipulated in the ordinance translate into budget savings of over 17 billion lei, which is approximately 3.5 billion euros. He also said that the decided measures aim at economic recovery and will form the basis of the 2021 Budget, which will be submitted to Parliament at the end of January.
Vaccination. Vaccination against COVID-19 continues in Romania in 25 centers in Bucharest and other cities. In this first stage, the vaccine doses are intended for medical staff. About 5,600 of them were vaccinated in the first three days of the national immunization campaign. Authorities said there were only a few common and minor side effects. On Tuesday, the second tranche of vaccines against Covid -19 arrived in the country, over 140 thousand doses produced by Pfizer-BioNTech. The vaccination campaign started on Sunday in Romania, as in most EU countries.
COVID-19 Romania – Over 4,900 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Romania on Wednesday, out of approximately 25,000 tests run in 24 hours. Most of the new cases were reported in Bucharest. As regards the contamination rate for a period of 14 days, the worst situation is reported in Ilfov County, near Bucharest, with almost five cases per thousand inhabitants. The authorities have also announced 127 COVID-19 related deaths, and 1,149 patients in intensive care. Almost 88% of the people infected with the new coronavirus since the onset of the pandemic have recovered.
Pandemic. More than 82.4 million people have been infected with the new coronavirus in the world, nearly 1.8 million have died and 58.4 million have been declared cured – according to worldometers.info. The United Kingdom, which set a new record for the number of infections, became the first country in the world to approve the coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca on Wednesday as it faces a new, highly contagious strain of the new coronavirus. The United States has announced that it has detected the first case of infection with the new British strain. Latin America and the Caribbean are the second region in the world to exceed half a million deaths due to COVID-19, almost two weeks after Europe became the first continent with more than half a million deaths. In Europe, Germany recorded for the first time since the start of the pandemic more than 1,000 deaths associated with the new coronavirus in just one day. The federal government is considering extending the current drastic restrictions beyond the originally set date of January 10. Most European countries have tightened restrictions due to rising infections.
Brexit. The long-awaited post-Brexit agreement was signed on Wednesday by the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the European Council President Charles Michel. The agreement regulates the relations between the EU and the UK as of Friday, January 1, 2021. European leaders described the moment as “of historic importance” and “a major step forward”. The document was also endorsed by the House of Commons in London. The new regulations are to be ratified by the European Parliament and the legislatures of the 27 Member States. The United Kingdom, which officially left the EU on 31 January 2020, will permanently abandon the EU single market and customs union on 31 December, but no agreement will be imposed on the movement of goods from both sides following this agreement.
Festival. The Romanian Film Festival in Israel started on Wednesday, organized by the Romanian Cultural Institute, in online format. The program includes, until January 30, 2021, a series of films from the Romanian Cinematography Heritage, signed by directors such as Lucian Pintilie, Ion Popescu-Gopo, Mircea Daneliuc, Andrei Blaier. On the occasion of the festival, the Romanian ambassador to the State of Israel, Radu Ioanid, paid tribute to the late Romanian director Radu Gabrea. (M. Ignatescu)
