June 21, 2020 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news.

Newsroom, 21.06.2020, 19:01

CORONAVIRUS – Romanian authorities on Sunday reported 315 new infections with COVID-19, which brings the total number of infections to 24,045. Also on Sunday 12 deaths have been reported, with the death toll so far being 1,512. As many as 16,911 people have recovered while 195 patients are in intensive care. If the number of infections continues to go up, authorities will take new restrictive measures. PM Ludovic Orban has announced in Vatra Dornei, in northern Romania, that he does not rule out the extension of the state of alert and has called for the observance of the hygiene rules. He has told people working in the hospitality industry, who asked for the relaxation of rectrictions, the opening of restaurants in particular, that this will only be possible if the evolution of the pandemic allows it.

SIBIU – The International Theatre Festival in Sibiu, central Romania, held online for the first time in its history, ended on Sunday. This year’s theme has been The power to believe.” For 10 consecutive days, some 138 events from 30 different countries were been held. They were all presented on the website sibiufest.ro and on the festival’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. Adding to these were 12 special conferences. According to the organisers, the largest theatre festival in Central and Eastern Europe has offered 250 hours of theatre, dance, music, circus, conferences, debates and children’s shows, all free of charge.

BORDER – Romanian border policemen at the Bors check point in Bihor county have caught seven foreign citizens who were trying to illegally cross the border to Hungary, to reach Western Europe. The seven citizens are from Morocco, Syria and Ethiopia and are all asylum seekers in Romania. They are now under investigation.

HOTBED – Some 13 hundred workers at a slaughter house of one of Germany’s biggest producers in North Westfalia, where a COVID-19 hotbed was discovered, have been found positive to the virus. Half of them are Romanian, according to the Romanian Foreign Ministry. The consular office was announced that 17 Romanians left the quarantine area, with local authorities now trying to locate them. Romanian authorities have asked for information as regards the citizenship, identity and health condition of the infected people. Preliminary results show that 13 hundred people tested positive, of whom 7 thousand have been placed under quarantine.

SCHENGEN – European MPs have called on the EU Council and the member states to take the necessary measures for the admission of Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia to the Schengen Area. The request is included in a resolution passed on Friday, which shows that the quick return to a fully functional Schengen area is needed in order to guarantee the freedom of movement and to ensure the EU’s economic recovery. The move comes in the context in which EU countries have started to eliminate checks and restrictions introduced due to the pandemic. In Friday’s resolution, Parliament urges the Commission to assess the employment, health and safety conditions of cross-border and seasonal workers, including the role of intermediary agencies and subcontracting firms, to identify shortcomings in EU and national legislation and, possibly, revise the existing EU laws. The text also calls for a swift and balanced agreement on the coordination of social security systems that is needed to combat social fraud and the abuse of mobile workers’ rights.

WEATHER – The weather in Romania is unstable but warm in most regions. Metheorologists issued a code orange alert on Sunday for 33 counties, valid until Monday morning, as well as two code yellow alerts valid until Wednesday for almost the entire territory including the capital Bucharest. Also, hydrologysts issued a code orange alert for flooding, in place until Monday afternoon. Over 24 thousand employees with the Interior Ministry have been dispatched across the country to help people affected by floodings.

IMPORTS – The Romanian exports of cereals have gone up by 42% in the first three months of the year, as against the same period of 2019, the national Institute of Statistics reports. Romania has exported cereals worth over 822 million euros and imported cereals and cereal-based products worth more than 167 million euros. The main destination of exports in the EU were France, Spain and Italy, while most imports came from Hungary, Bulgaria and France.

(Translated by Elena Enache)