February 6, 2021
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 06.02.2021, 13:57
Covid-19 Ro. The
Romanian Prime Minister, Florin Cîţu, has received the second dose of COVID 19
vaccine today. President Klaus Iohannis too got the second jab on Friday. He
said that the vaccine is safe and effective and recommended vaccination to all
Romanians, as the only way, together with the observance of anti-vaccine
protection measures, to get Romania out of the pandemic. The anti-Covid vaccine
produced by AstraZeneca, in collaboration with Oxford University, will be
administered in Romania only to people between 18 and 55 years old. By the end
of this month, 800,000 doses of this vaccine will have reached the country.
Meanwhile, the immunization campaign with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine continues.
The administration of the Moderna vaccine started on Thursday. In total, so
far, about 650 thousand Romanians have been vaccinated. On Friday, more than
2,500 new cases of Covid and 73 deaths were reported in Romania, after 31,000
tests run in 24 hours. About 950 people are hospitalized in intensive care
units. The total number of Sars – Cov – 2 infections has exceeded 740,000, and
the number of deaths has reached 18,740.
Fire. Two more
patients who were in the fifth ward of the Matei Balş Institute in Bucharest
during last week’s fire died, the
Ministry of Health announced today. These are two men, aged 73 and 91,
respectively. Five people lost their lives on the day of the fire, and nine
more deaths were reported later among patients transferred to other hospitals.
The prosecutor’s office attached to the Bucharest Tribunal announced that it finished,
on Friday, the on-site investigation. So far, 33 people, medical staff,
administrative staff, police officers who participated in the initial
intervention and relatives of the victims have been heard. Several wards burned
and the whole building was affected by smoke. More than 100 patients were
evacuated and transferred to other health facilities. A similar tragedy took
place in November, at the emergency hospital in Piatra Neamţ (northeast), as a
result of which 10 patients died.
Navalny. The leader of the Renew Liberal
group in the European Parliament, the former Romanian Prime Minister Dacian
Ciolos, has said that the High Representative for Foreign Affairs of the Union,
Josep Borrell, must come with explanations before the MEPs, after he was
humiliated by the Russian Foreign Minister, Serghei Lavrov. Today’s
events are a slap in Europe’s face and should serve as a lesson that in
negotiations with the Russians we can only impose ourselves if we are united in
defending the values on which the European Union is founded: respect for
human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, rule of law and human rights
– Ciolos wrote in a post on Facebook, after Moscow announced on Friday
the expulsion of three diplomats from Germany, Poland and Sweden, because they
participated in the protests for the release of Aleksei Navalny. The head of
European diplomacy had admitted, since the beginning of the week, that he would
not obtain the release of the most fierce opponent of President Vladimir Putin.
At a meeting with Lavrov, Borell reiterated his call for the release of Navalny
and the start of an impartial investigation into his poisoning with Noviciok in
August 2020. Already sentenced to prison on Tuesday in a case of embezzlement
that he says it was politically fabricated, Navalny appeared in court again on
Friday on charges of defaming a World War II Soviet army veteran.
Training. Soldiers
from the Romanian Naval Forces and Air Force carried out, on Friday, in the
Black Sea basin, a joint training mission with US Navy soldiers. According to
the Ministry of Defense in Bucharest, the exercise was the first joint
Romanian-American training activity this year and aimed at strengthening the NATO
assurance measures in the South-East of Europe, as well as increasing the level
of interoperability, demonstrating, once again, the US involvement in ensuring
security in the Black Sea area. The strategic partnership with the USA is one
of the pillars of Romania’s defense and security. In an increasingly dynamic
security environment, such as the Black Sea, cooperation between the Romanian
Army and American forces deployed in Europe contributes to strengthening the
ability to react, quickly and efficiently, to a wide range of social security
threats on the eastern flank of the North Atlantic Alliance, the Romanian
Defense Ministry states.
Tennis. Romanian
tennis player Simona Halep, world number two and second seed, will meet
Australian Lizette Cabrera in the first round of the Australian Open, the first
Grand Slam of the year, which starts on Monday in Melbourne. According to the
draw, the first round also includes the duel between the Romanian Patricia Ţig
and Sorana Cîrstea. Another Romanian, Irina Begu, will play against the Serbian
Nina Stojanovic in the inaugural round, and Ana Bogdan will take on the
American Danielle Collins. Mihaela Buzărnescu, who joined the main board from the position of
lucky loser, will play in the first round against the Romanian-born
Canadian Bianca Andreescu.
Handball.
Romania’s women’s handball vice-champion, CSM Bucharest, returns
today to the Champtions League, after two matches in a row that were posponed
to to the cases of Covid-19 reported in their oponents’ teams. The Bucharest
team plays, on home turf, with the Danish team Esbjerg. After 10 matches, CSM
holds the 5th place in the Group A ranking, whiel the Danes are on 6th, with 8
points. On Sunday, the Romanian champion, SCM
Râmnicu Vâlcea, also plays away in Group B, in the company of another Danish
team, Odense. Vâlcea is on the 6th place in the group, with only 4 points. Only
the first two teams qualify directly in the quarterfinals, while the other will
have a play-off. (M. Ignatescu)
