February 2, 2021
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 02.02.2021, 13:55
SCHOOL. A decision on the return of Romanian pupils to schools starting
with the second semester is to be taken today by authorities, after a new
assessment of the epidemiological situation. President Klaus Iohannis will hold
talks with Prime Minister Florin Cîţu, the health and education ministers and
health professionals who monitor the evolution of the coronavirus pandemic. If
schools are to open physically on February 8th, in practical
terms the decision will be made
locally, depending on the rate of
infection. On Monday, the Minister of Education, Sorin Cîmpeanu, stated that will
receive protective masks from a special stock, allocated to pre-university
education. He explained that hybrid education will be maintained where there
are teachers and students who have a medical indication to continue classes at
home.
REPORT. Deputy Prime Minister Dan Barna has announced that, today, a report
will be presented on Friday’s fire at the largest infectious diseases hospital
in Romania, Matei Balş in Bucharest. Three people died in the fire,
which broke out in a ward where COVID-19 patients were hospitalized, and seven
other deaths were subsequently recorded among those transferred. The document
will also include the general situation of the health system, Barna said. Such
accidents cannot be eliminated, they happen all over the world, but in Romania
they happen a bit too often, Dan Barna also said, pleading for firm measures to
be implemented in this respect. On the other hand, the Minister of Health, Vlad
Voiculescu, has stated that also today he will receive the report on the causes
of the fire that broke out in November 2020 at the Intensive Care Unit of
Piatra Neamţ County Hospital (northeast), which killed 10 people, also infected
with the new coronavirus. On Monday, the Romanian College of Physicians urged
the authorities to stop making promises and to actually start building new
hospital units in keeping with the latest standards in the field.
COVID-19 RO. So far, in Romania over 475 thousand people have been
vaccinated against COVID-19 with the first dose, and another 123 thousand
people have received the booster. On Monday, the authorities in Bucharest
announced that the administration of the Moderna serum had also started. Also
on Monday, a new vaccine tranche produced by Pfizer-BioNTech, the largest so
far, arrived in Romania. The delivery schedule is much delayed, as in all
European countries, but the manufacturing company has given assurances that,
from the middle of this month, the number of delivered doses will increase.
According to the Strategic Communication Group in Bucharest, in Romania the
number of infections with the new coronavirus exceeded 732,000 on Tuesday, in
almost a year since the first case was confirmed in the country. Over 90% of
those who contracted the coronavirus have recovered, but over 18,500 have died.
Almost 1,000 patients are hospitalized in intensive care units. The number of
Romanians abroad confirmed with the new coronavirus has exceeded 8,000, and the
number of deaths has reached 150.
VISIT. The President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, will pay an
official visit to Paris on Wednesday and Thursday, where she will have a
meeting with her French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, as well as with other
high-ranking state officials. According to Chisinau, the trip to France is
meant to give a new impetus to the political, economic and cultural relations
between the two countries. It is Maya Sandu’s third visit abroad, after those to
Kiev and Brussels. After taking office, at the end of December, she received in
Chisinau the head of the Romanian state, Klaus Iohannis.
MOSCOW. A Moscow
court is to rule today whether to change the suspended prisons sentence given
six years ago to the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny to actual time in prison.
The Kremlin’s virulent critic was initially charged with embezzlement, but was
later charged with violating parole rules. Alexei Navalny insisted that his
case was politically motivated, and the European Court of Human Rights stated
that the initial three-and-a-half-year suspended prison sentence was clearly
unjustified. His arrest in early January sparked a wave of protests in Russia.
On Sunday, Russian police arrested thousands of people and blocked the center
of several cities, including the capital, during new demonstrations held across
the country for the release of Navalny. Russian authorities, however, say that
the protests have not been authorized. The United States and the EU have condemned
Moscow’s crackdown on anti-government protesters. In response, the Russian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused the US of ‘blatant interference’ in its
domestic affairs.
TENNIS. Romanian tennis player Irina Begu has qualified today for the next
round of the Gippsland Trophy (WTA) in Melbourne, after beating the Belarusian
Aleksandra Sasnovici 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 . Next Begu will face the British Johanna
Konta (14 WTA). Simona Halep, world number two, qualified, on Monday, for the
third round of this competition after winning her first official match in 2021,
6-4, 6-4 against the Russian Anastasia Potapova (101 WTA). In the next match
Halep will meet the German Laura Siegemund (51 WTA).
OLYMPIC GAMES. Japan will host the Olympic Games this summer (July 23 -
August 8) regardless of the evolution of the coronavirus pandemic, Tokyo-2020
committee chairman Yoshiro Mori was quoted as saying by Reuters. The Tokyo
Olympics, originally scheduled for the summer of 2020, were postponed for a
year due to the global health crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. A recent
surge in infections in Japan, which has forced authorities to declare a state
of emergency in some areas, including Tokyo, has fueled speculation about a
possible further postponement of competition. (M. Ignatescu)
