December 30, 2022 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 30.12.2022, 19:56

Population.
Romania’s resident population stands at 19.05
million people, of which 9.8 million female, representing 51.5%, according to
the first provisional data for the Population and Housing Census, round 2021,
the National Institute of Statistics announced on Friday. Over 9.9 million
people live in the urban environment, representing about 52% of the total
population. NIS mentions that the process of demographic aging has deepened,
compared to 10 years ago, noting the increase in the share of the elderly
population, 65 years and over. Compared to the resident population recorded in
the previous census, in 2011, Romania lost 1.1 million inhabitants. 14.8
million people declared themselves Romanians, that is, over 89%. The ethnic
Hungarian population represents 6%, and the Roma 3.4%. The ethnic groups for
which more than 20,000 people have been registered are Ukrainians, Germans and
Turks. 85% of the people who declared their religion are Orthodox, 4.5%
declared themselves Roman Catholic, 3% Reformed, and 2.5% Pentecostal. Less
than 1% of the total population declared themselves of ‘no religion’, atheists or agnostics. The 2021 census was the
13th in history and the first in Romania organized entirely in digital format.

Survey.
The Governor of the National Bank of
Romania, Mugur Isărescu, enjoys the
highest level of trust – 39% – among Romanians, according to a survey conducted
by IRES – the Romanian Institute for Evaluation and Strategy. He is followed by
the head of state, Klaus Iohannis, and the president of the Chamber of
Deputies, Marcel Ciolacu, with 21%. According to the data, Prime Minister
Nicolae Ciucă is trusted by 19% of the citizens. The survey also highlights
that the occupation that Romanians trust the least is politician, followed by that of policeman and journalist.
At the opposite pole, the professions of firefighter, IT specialist and
engineer are at the top of the trust list. Three quarters of Romanians believe
that Romania is going in the wrong direction, while only 1 in 5 consider it to
be right. The opinion poll was conducted by IRES between December 7-12 on a
sample of over 1,600 respondents over 18 years of age and a margin of error of
plus or minus 2.5%.

Visits.
The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, has
made 21 foreign trips this year, costing a total of 3.3 million euros, the
Presidential Administration has announced, at the request of the AGERPRESS news
agency. The most frequent destination was Brussels, where Iohannis took part in
the EU and NATO summits. In September,
the Romanian head of state attended the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II of Great
Britain in London. Also in September, he led the Romanian delegation to the
General Assembly of the United Nations (UN), organized in New York, after which
he went for two days to the West Coast of the United States, to San Francisco,
where he met with representatives of the Romanian diaspora. Paris, Madrid,
Athens, Prague, Riga, Vilnius, Kiev and Sharm El-Sheikh, in Egypt, were other
destinations where President Iohannis travelled this year.

Refugees.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion
in neighboring Ukraine, on February 24, the Romanian authorities have
identified on the territory of the country almost 5,000 Ukrainian men who fled
their country for fear of the war. The information has been published by the
press, which cites clarifications received from the Romanian Police. These
citizens requested to be granted protection from the Romanian state, as they
come from a conflict zone. They entered Romania without going through the usual
formalities at the border points and were accommodated in the regional centers
for asylum seekers. The martial law established in Ukraine prohibits men aged 18
to 60 from leaving the country. Those who have medical problems or fathers with
at least three children are exempt from this decision.

Athletes.
The Romanian swimmer David Popovici was
included on a select list, drawn up by the Spanish press agency EFE, of the ten
athletes who achieved unique performances in 2022. ‘Double world and European
champion in the 100 and 200 m freestyle, the young Romanian, only 18 years old,
became the fastest swimmer on the planet, after which he broke the legendary
world record in the 100 m freestyle held by the Brazilian Cesar Cielo, which
dates back to 2009’, reads the
description made by EFE of the Romanian athlete, who appears in the Top 10
alongside, among others, the Argentinean star of world football Lionel Messi.

Corruption. The National Anticorruption Directorate
(DNA) in Romania informed, on Friday, that 28 final court decisions were made
in November, for crimes of taking and giving bribes, influence peddling, abuse
of office, and embezzling European funds. According to the cited source, the
punishments ordered by the judges vary between 4 years and 3 months in prison
and 10 months with a suspended sentence

Viral
infections. Between December 19 and
25, more than 140,000 cases of acute respiratory infections were reported in
Romania, 100,000 more than in the same period last year, the National Center
for Surveillance and Control of Communicable Diseases informed. No confirmed
deaths from the flu virus have been reported. Until December 25, approximately
1.4 million people from risk groups were vaccinated against influenza. The
SARS-CoV-2 virus also circulates in parallel. The weekly statistics published
by the Ministry of Health show that between December 19-25, approximately 3,400
cases of COVID were registered in Romania. In another move, the Ministry of
Health proposed banning the export of some medicines for a period of six
months. It is about antibiotics and antithermics for pediatric use, for which
there has been an important increase in consumption in recent months. (MI)