January 5, 2022 UPDATE
A roundup of international and local news.
Newsroom, 05.01.2022, 20:00
CORONAVIRUS – The National Committee for Emergency Situations passed on Wednesday the decision on the proposal to extend the state of alert and measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposal stipulates the obligation to wear only a surgical or FFP2 protective mask, which must cover the mouth and the nose, in all public spaces, both indoors and outdoors. Children under the age of 5, people who are alone in the office, TV presenters and their guests, representatives of religious denominations during masses, speakers in closed or open spaces will be exempted from this measure, provided that the distance of 3 meters between people is observed. Some 4,893 new cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection have been reported in the past 24 hours, as well as 30 related deaths, 6 from an earlier date. Nearly 8 million people have been fully vaccinated, which is a little over 40% of the eligible population.
PANDEMIC – The fifth wave of the pandemic caused by the Omicron is getting bigger, with new case records worldwide. After the United States, which reported more than 1 million cases, significant increases were also reported in Europe. France is approaching 300,000 infections a day, and authorities are announcing tough restrictions on the unvaccinated people, who will be virtually unable to go anywhere as of January 15th. In the UK, labor market problems, already pre-existing due to Brexit, are being exacerbated by the pandemic. Key sectors are affected, and the government has even called on retired teachers to return temporarily to the system after the UK exceeded 200,000 infections. Cases have also multiplied in Italy and Greece. According to an Israeli study, a fourth dose of anti-Covid vaccine increases the total number of antibodies five times a week after the inoculation. Israel is already administering the fourth dose of Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine to people over 60, health care workers and immunocompromised patients.
FUNDS — The Romanian Government’s spokesman, Dan Carbunaru, said that the possibility of having a number of objectives included in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) fulfilled in advance was discussed at Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting. He also said that 18 of the 21 targets in the NRRP had been reached by the end of 2021. According to Carbunaru, there are, at present, three sectors that depend on the answer of European institutions as regards their financing, but that commitments have been complied with by Romania. The country has already received 1.9 billion euros worth of grants out of more than 29 billion euros that Brussels earmarked for Romania. Another 1.9 billion are to be disbursed in the upcoming days.
EDUCATION – The Romanian students’ associations have announced they will protest in front of the Education Ministry in Bucharest on Thursday and will challenge in Court the Minister’s order that leaves 730,000 of them without scholarships. The National Students’ Council have condemned the measure by which the education ministry decided to deprive tens of thousands of children of their right to education. The threshold for a merit scholarship was raised from 8.5 to 9.5, a criterion that students see as ineffective and unfair. Students also want the new criterion to be enforced only starting next year. In his turn, Education Minister Sorin Cimpeanu has recently said that during the classes held online due to the pandemic, grades were distorted so that 50% of Romania’s students could have received merit scholarships.
HANDBALL – Romanias mens national handball team is training for the preliminary qualifying tournament of the World Championship, on home turf in Cluj-Napoca (northwest). Between January 7-9, 2022, the Romanians will take on the national teams of Israel, Cyprus and the Republic of Moldova. Last week, Romania played, also in Cluj, two training matches with the Turkish national team, and won both of them. The friendly matches replaced in the program of the two teams a new edition of the traditional Carpathian Trophy, which was canceled, as several members of the Swiss and Iranian teams tested positive for Covid-19. The coach of the Romanian team is the famous Spanish Xavi Pasqual, who won the Champions League with Barcelona three times.
TENNIS – Romanian Simona Halep (20 WTA) defeated, on Wednesday, the Australian Destanee Aiava (316 WTA) at the Melbourne Summer Set 1 tournament. In the second round she will take on the Romanian Gabriela Ruse, who got an easy victory, on Tuesday, 6-3, 6-2 against the local player Arina Rodionova (152 WTA). Also on Wednesday, the Romanian Irina Begu and the Serbian Nina Stojanovic have qualified for the quarters of Melbourne Set 2 – WTA 250, where they will play against the pair made up of Aliona Bolsova (Spain) and Katarzyna Kawa (Poland). The two preparatory tournaments are taking place ahead of the Australian Open (January 17-30). (EE)
