February 2, 2022 UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 02.02.2022, 19:39

Covid-19 Ro. Romania
registered, on Wednesday, almost 36 thousand new Covid cases and 120 related
deaths, including 13 from an earlier date. Almost 1,000 Covid patients are in intensive care. The
positive rate is 33%. The incidence rate in Bucharest passed 23 cases per one thousand
inhabitants – the highest since the beginning of the pandemic. In the previous
wave, the incidence rate had peaked at 16.5 on October 22. On Tuesday, Romania
exceeded the threshold of 40,000 new infections in 24 hours, out of 122
thousand tests performed. It is the absolute record since the beginning of the
pandemic and more than double the peak of the previous wave.

Troops. US president Joe Biden on
Wednesday approved the deployment of additional troops to Eastern Europe,
including Romania. According to the US media, a number of US officials said the
move is intended to show the support of NATO allies for Ukraine, a country
neighbouring Romania. Pentagon’s spokesman John Kirby confirmed that some 3,000
US military are to be deployed in countries on the NATO eastern flank, with
some 1,000 to be repositioned within the next few days to Romania. Also on
Wednesday, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis said concrete announcements will
be made soon with respect to the deployment of US and French military units in
Romania.

Anniversary. The
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian is on a two-day formal visit
to Romania. On Wednesday, he attended a special sitting of the Romanian Parliament
dedicated to the 15th anniversary of Romania’s accession to the European Union.
Romania became a member of the European Union on January 1, 2007, after a long
process of negotiation and adherence to Community standards and almost 14 years
after the signing of the Association Agreement, on February 1, 1993. The French
minister also held consultations with his Romanian counterpart, Bogdan Aurescu,
who will host, on Thursday, a meeting on the worrying security situation in the
vicinity of Ukraine and the Black Sea in the Bucharest Nine format, which will
also be attended by the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba. B9 includes NATO
member states from the Eastern Flank of the Alliance: Bulgaria, the Czech
Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary.

Protest. More
than 2,000 police and prison staff, as well as army reservists, protested outside
the Government headquarters in Bucharest, demanding higher salaries and
pensions. They want salary increases and bonuses, the indexation of state
military pensions according to the inflation rate and quality medical care.
Other demands concern the adoption of measures to reduce the shortage of police
personnel and to equip police officers with intervention and physical
protection equipment adequate for the accomplishment of their missions. Last
but not least, they challenge the imposition, during the pandemic, of
medical-sanitary tasks for which they do not have the necessary training.

Statistics. Online shopping continues to grow in
the European Union. The highest increase in online shopping in the last five
years was reported in the Czech Republic, with 27% and Romania, Hungary and
Slovenia, with 26% each, according to a report published by Eurostat, the EU
statistical office. Across the EU, 90% of people aged 17 to 74 used the
Internet in 2021, 74% of whom bought or ordered goods or services for private
use. The highest shares of online shopping were recorded in the Netherlands,
with 94%, Denmark, with 92% and Sweden, with 89%. At the opposite end, fewer
than 50% shopped online in Romania (44%) and Bulgaria (42). (CM)