June 7, 2021 UPDATE
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 07.06.2021, 20:25
COVID-19 The latest developments in the COVID-19 pandemic indicate this is the best situation Romania has seen in the past year. Authorities on Monday announced 89 new cases and 63 related fatalities. 17 hundred patients are presently being treated in hospitals out of which 315 are in intensive care. 96% out of those infected since the beginning of the pandemic have been cured. The capital city Bucharest and all the counties are in the so-called green zone with less than 1 per thousand infections. Most of the cases have been reported in Bucharest, 15. No infection has been reported in 14 other Romanian counties. The vaccine rollout continues all over the country and since its onset in late December 2020, 4.4 million people have been vaccinated.
FILM Romanian director Andrei Epures short reel, Intercom 15, has been shortlisted for the 60th edition of the Semaine de la Critique (the International Critics Week) of the French Film Festival in Cannes in July, the organizers of the event announced on Monday. The film tells the story of several residents who discover an unconscious woman lying in front of a block of flats. Even though the woman lives on the third floor, nobody knows her name. While waiting for paramedics, the neighbours are reflecting on the womans life and their own. This year the jury of Semaine de la Critique is to be presided by another Romanian director, Cristian Mungiu, who in 2007 got the Palme dOr award for his film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, in 2012 he was awarded for best screenplay with his film Beyond the hills and in 2016 with Graduation got the best director award. La Civil, a Romanian-Belgian-Mexican production directed by Teodora Ana Mihai has been shortlisted for the Un Certain Regard section of the aforementioned festival. The film tells the story of a mother who decides to take action after her daughter has been kidnapped in Mexico.
SURVEY The monthly average total income per household in Romania stood at some 1,000 euros in 2020, with 83% going to expenses, shows a report from the National Institute for Statistics published on Monday. Salaries and associated incomes accounted for the most important source of household income last year, at 68.2%, down 0.4% compared with the previous year. A household spent on average 888 euros a month, down 1.6% compared with the previous year. The report shows that household spending mainly covered food and non-food products, services, transfers to the public and private administration and social security contributions in the form of tax and other duties, as well as needs related to household production.
EU The EU Justice and Home Affairs Council is meeting for two days, Monday and Tuesday, in Luxembourg. On the first day, EU justice ministers were discussing ways to combat illegal online content, e-justice and the protection of vulnerable adults. On Tuesday, talks are expected to focus on ways to combat crime and terrorism, migration and asylum. A special subject on the agenda will be the strategy for the Schengen free movement area, with a plan to reform it being presented last week in Brussels. The EU commissioner for home affairs Ylva Johansson stood for the entry of Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia to Schengen as soon as possible. The European Commission recalls in its strategy that Romania and Bulgaria, and recently also Croatia, received positive evaluations with respect to their Schengen accession. 22 EU member states are currently in the Schengen area, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
5G The decision-making Senate in Bucharest on Monday endorsed a draft law initiated by the government on measures referring to IT&C structures of national interest and the conditions of implementing 5G networks. The law is aimed at passing a series of measures referring to authorizing the producers of technologies, equipment and software programmes used within the IT&C infrastructure of national interest as well as in the electronic communication networks providing electronic communication services of 5G type with a view to preventing, combating and eliminating risks, threats and vulnerabilities to national defence and security. Under an amendment by the legal, economic and defence committees within the Senate, the users, which have had their permits withdrawn, are allowed to use the network equipment for 7 more years only. At the same time, communication providers are allowed to use in 5G networks only technologies, equipment and software programmes from authorized producers only by means of a permit issued by the countrys Higher Defence Council. The new 5G network is able to transfer a much bigger volume of data at a much higher speed.
(bill)
