July 6, 2021

A news roundup

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Newsroom, 06.07.2021, 13:55

Covid RO ▪ 51 new cases of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 have been registered in the last 24 hours, out of over 27,800 tests, the Strategic Communication Group reported. Also, 4 people lost their lives due to COVID-19 during the same period. Most newly confirmed cases were registered in Cluj – 6 and Bucharest – 4, while no new cases were registered in 21 counties. The entire territory of Romania is in the green scenario, the highest incidence per thousand inhabitants being reported in the counties of Prahova – 0.11, Ilfov and Dolj – 0.07. 392 infected people are still in hospital, of whom 61 in intensive care. At the same time, 19,677 people are in home quarantine and 37 in institutionalized quarantine, while 1,853 are in home isolation and 705, in institutionalized isolation. Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign in Romania, on December 27, 2020, almost 4.6 million people have been fully vaccinated.

Coronavirus world ▪ Concern is growing in several European countries over the spread of the new Indian ‘Delta’ variant of the SARS-COV-2 virus. Consequently appeals for immunization have intensified, immunization being mandatory for certain categories of employees. According to Radio Romania’s correspondents, in Spain the contamination incidence exceeded 640 cases per hundred thousand inhabitants in the 20-29 age group, but no serious cases were reported. In France, the Health Minister warned of a new rise in the number of newly detected cases. As everywhere in Europe, France is debating the idea of ​​imposing compulsory vaccination on medical and healthcare staff from hospitals and senior citizen centers, where the vaccination level is below expectations. Worldwide, nearly 185 million cases of coronavirus infection have been reported and more than 4 million people have died, according to wordlmeters.info. Most contamination cases and deaths have been recorded in the United States, India and Brazil.

Justice ▪ Romanian politicians in power and opposition have reacted to the Venice Commission’s opinion according to which it is appropriate to disband the Special Section to investigate crimes committed by magistrates (SIIJ). The opinion of the Venice Commission is not surprising, as the setting up of a section to investigate the criminal offenses committed by magistrates had been criticized from the very beginning by all of the European institutions. Dealing with corruption cases should be the responsibility of the National Anticorruption Directorate, and the amendments brought to the law should be eliminated — the USR PLUS Alliance (in the ruling coalition) says. They hope that the draft law initiated by the Justice Minister, Stelian Ion, will be adopted by Parliament as soon as possible. The opinion of the Venice Commission confirms that the Liberals move regarding the elimination of super-immunity for magistrates was right, the president of the Senate’s legal commission, the Liberal Iulia Scântei, also said. The opposition Social Democratic Party PSD continues to be opposed to any change in the justice laws, in the absence of a large consensus among magistrates over the protection of judges against pressure and abuse of any kind. The Social Democrats want the magistrates’ position to be respected.

Football ▪ The Romanian football champions, CFR Cluj, is meeting, this evening, on home ground, the Bosnian team Borac Banja Luka, in the first leg of the Champions League first preliminary round. Also today, Italy and Spain play the first semifinal of the European Football Championship, which will be followed, on Wednesday, by the match pitting England against Denmark. Both semi-finals and the final will be played in London. Bucharest hosted four games from the final tournament, three in the groups stage and one in the Round of 16. After a mediocre run in the preliminaries, Romania failed to qualify for the EURO. In exchange, Romanias Under-23 team has qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. Romania is playing in Group B and will face Honduras on July 22, South Korea on July 25 and New Zealand on July 28. The Romanian footballers have qualified for the Olympics after having reached the semifinals of the European Under-21 Championship in 2019, hosted by Italy and San Marino. Romania has not participated in the Olympic football tournament since 1964, when it ranked 5th also in Tokyo. Before 1964, Romania had participated only in the European Championships of Paris in 1924 and of Helsinki in 1952.

Visit ▪ The Bulgarian Chief of the Defense, Admiral Emil Eftimov, is paying an official visit to Romania as of Tuesday until Thursday, at the invitation of his Romanian counterpart, Lieutenant General Daniel Petrescu. According to the Romania Defense Ministry, the talks of military officials will focus on increasing cooperation through joint participation in a series of regional initiatives and exercises in bilateral and multinational formats, as well as on strengthening, in the Black Sea region, the measures within the NATO Enhanced Presence. The program includes meetings at the headquarters of the South-East Multinational Brigade in Craiova (southwest), the South-East Multinational Division in Bucharest, the 8th Tactical Operative Missiles and 282nd Armored Brigades in Focsani (east) and the 74th PATRIOT Regiment in Mihai Bravu. The visit also includes meetings of Admiral Emil Eftimov with the Bulgarian military in the allied structures deployed in Romania. (LS)