December 4, 2021
A roundup of domestic and international news...
Newsroom, 04.12.2021, 19:52
COVID-19 — 1,490 new cases of coronavirus infection have been reported on Saturday in Romania. More than 130 related deaths have also been reported, of which 20 from a previous date. Authorities have announced they will increase the testing capacity, one of the options being free testing at the general practitioner’s office. As regards vaccination, a little over 7.4 million people have been fully vaccinated in Romania. In another development, two of the three Romanians repatriated from South Africa, who tested positive for Covid-19, have most likely been infected with the Omicron variant, according to the first lab tests. The three are vaccinated and asymptomatic. One of the 122 Romanians repatriated on Thursday evening from Morocco, after flights had been suspended over the Omicron variant, tested positive to coronavirus but the variant is still to be established. All other passengers tested negative.
OMICRON — The World Health Organisation says it does not have information of any death caused by Omicron, the new variant of Covid-19. First identified in South Africa, Omicron has already been detected in 38 countries, prompting many of them to toughen border and local restrictions. Thus, Italy will ban the access of unvaccinated people to most public places, starting on Monday. The Italian Government says it does not consider mandatory vaccination for the time being, but wants to convince the undecided to get immunized. 73% of Italians are fully vaccinated while more than 6 million have not been immunized at all. France, where 12 cases of infection with Omicron have been confirmed, has toughened sanitary restrictions at borders, in an attempt to keep the 5th wave of the pandemic in check and prevent Omicron from spreading. Thus, all travellers from countries outside the EU, whether vaccinated or not, must provide upon entering France a negative test taken no sooner than 48 hours before while in the case of Russians and Britons, this negative test must be taken no sooner than 24 hours before entering the country.
LIST – In Bucharest, the National Committee for Emergencies updated the list of countries and territories with high coronavirus infection rates. Thus, France, Portugal, Mauritius and the Northern Mariana Islands entered the red zone. Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia and Belize have entered the orange zone after being out of the red one, while countries like Spain, Sweden and Vietnam, previously in the green zone, have entered the orange zone.
MIGRANTS — The Romanian border police detained 22 foreign citizens who were trying to illegally cross Romania’s border with Hungary hidden in cars and on foot. Trying to get passed checkpoints in Nadlac II and Curtici were people from Afghanistan, Turkey, Iraq, Bangladesh and Syria.
SOCIAL – The number of disabled people in Romania stands at 861,000, of whom 98% are cared for by their families or live independently, while only 2% are institutionalised, according to the latest data released by the authorities. The capital Bucharest has the largest number of disabled people. Women account for more than half of the total number. PM Nicolae Ciuca said that a draft law on protection measures for people with mental disabilities will be discussed by the Government next week.
HANDBALL – Romania’s national handball team defeated Iran on Friday evening in their first match at the IHF Women’s World Championship held in Spain. Romania is part of Group C and will be up against Kazakhstan on December 5 and Norway on December 7. Romania has not missed any world championship. It won the title in 1962, silver medals in 1973 and 2005 and bronze in 2015. Romania ranked 12 at the previous edition of the World Championship held in Japan in 2019.
