June 5, 2020
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 05.06.2020, 13:55
Covid-19 RO. More than 20,100 cases of coronavirus
infection have been reported in Romania so far. Of them, at least 14,100 have
been cured and discharged, but 1308 have died of Covid-19. As regards the
Romanians abroad, some 3,100 people have been infected and 114 have died.
Health Minister Nelu Tataru has stressed again that wearing a protective facial
mask in enclosed public spaces and on public means of transport remains compulsory.
He has stated that prevention measures must stay in place until there will be
no community spread. Nelu Tataru has explained that, at national level, each
public health directorate in Romania is conducting assessments in hospitals to
see the number and situation of patients that are still infected.
IMM
Invest. The Romanian Government has adopted the methodological norms for the
implementation of the Emergency Ordinance that improves the IMM Invest Program
for small and medium-sized enterprises. According to the Finance Minister
Florin Citu, this program is running well, and some 520 million Euro have been
used so far to support more than 3 thousand companies. He has also said that
the program can support a maximum of 40 thousand companies, and, if need be, at
the next budget adjustment more money will be earmarked for the program. Also,
a memorandum was adopted, on the basis of which the normative acts for the
implementation of a similar program for big companies will be drawn up. This
program might come into force within a month. The Executive has also adopted a
Decision allowing the purchase of new equipment for the National Disaster Response System, such as boats,
helicopters and extrication equipment. The amount allocated is 660
million Euros, of which 84.4% provided by the EU.
Pandemic. More than 6.7 million
people have been infected with the new coronavirus around the world. 3.2
million have been cured, and 393 thousand have died, according to data
published by worldometers.info. The US is the country most affected in the
world by Covid-19, with more than 110,000 deaths and 1.9 million cases
reported. In Europe, the most affected remain Great Britain, with 29 thousand
deaths, Italy with 33 thousand, France with 29 thousand and Spain with 27
thousand. Brazil, with 34 thousand dead, has become the third most affected
country in the world. Italy has opened its borders for most countries in the
Schengen zone. Only Greece and Germany have accepted so far to resume flights
as of June 15th, and the Greek Government has warned that all
passengers coming from the regions of Lombardy, Piedmont, Veneto and
Emilia-Romagna will have to be placed in self-isolation for up to 14 days.
Spain too has decided to open its borders starting July 1st, but
it’s unlikely for the tourism sectors to recover in the coming months, with
dozens of billions of Euros already lost so far.
US. The
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has denounced the killing of the African American
George Floyd by police officers and the racism that is hitting, in her opinion,
a very polarized American society, France Presse reports. Thousands of
Americans took to the stress in Minneapolis and New York to pay homage to
George Floyd, the African American killed by a white police officer, who knelt
on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed face down in
the street. In the meantime, the officer has been fired and arrested. Thursday’s
rallies were more peaceful than before, when acts of violence and vandalism
were reported. One explanation could be the many appeals launched by notable
figures and protesters to avoid violence. In the meantime, two organizations
have sued president Donald Trump and the US Attorney General for the brutal
intervention against protesters near the White House, which occurred early in
the week. The four police officers who arrested George Floyd are now being
prosecuted and Floyd’s death has been reclassified as murder. (M.Ignatescu)
