June 8, 2020 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 08.06.2020, 19:50

PENTECOST Orthodox and Greek-Catholic believers from
all over the world, Romania included, on Monday celebrated the second day of
Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the 12 apostles enabling them to
convey the Lord’s message in languages they had never spoken before. Upon
Apostle Peter’s speech, over 3000 people embraced Christianity making up the
nucleus of the first Christian Church in Jerusalem. Thousands of Romanians chose
to spend this mini-holiday in various resorts in the Prahova Valley, the Black
Sea coast and the Danube Delta.

PARTICIPATION Romania participates in ‘Team Europe’, one of the most ambitious
international assistance programmes being also part of ‘The Coronavirus Global
Response’, a fund-raising initiative aimed at developing and producing
treatment schemes, the Foreign Ministry in Bucharest on Monday announced. During
the informal proceedings of the Foreign Affairs Council on Monday, ministers
and state secretaries in charge of cooperation for development in the EU member
countries were assessing a programme aimed at providing assistance to
developing countries, which are facing difficulties in their attempt to contain
the Covid-19 pandemic. Romania’s funding priorities within Team Europe include:
boosting the institutional capabilities of healthcare systems, ensuring food safety,
a sustainable management of water resources and fighting fake news during the
pandemic. Education is another assistance means, and Romania has doubled the
scholarships granted to the young people from African countries since the
previous university year.

ALERT The state of alert could be extended in
Romania after June 15th, as there is still the risk of community
contagion and new outbreaks might appear, Health Minister Nelu Tataru told a TV
channel. A decision in this respect is expected from the National Committee for
Emergency Situations based on how the pandemic will develop after some of the restrictions
have been lifted. The latest toll stood at 1,339 fatalities out of more than 20,600
infections confirmed. 3,304 Romanian nationals have been infected abroad. Most
of the cases have been reported in Italy, nearly 1900, but the largest number
of fatalities among the Romanian nationals has been reported by Britain, over
40. Britain has also reported the lowest number of infections among the
Romanian nationals, below 100. The authorities in Bucharest have specified they
get data from Romania’s diplomatic missions in these countries from the local
authorities and even directly from the Romanian citizens abroad. In another
development, Health Minister Nelu Tataru has estimated that a possible second
wave of the pandemic will not have the same intensity as the first. The
Romanian official expects the situation to normalize by late July or early
August, provided the population complies with the prevention measures.

PANDEMIC The number of Coronavirus
infections around the world has exceeded 7.1 million and more than 406 thousand
people have died. 3.5 million patients have been declared cured. The United
States has registered over 1,900,000 Covid infections and 110,000 fatalities.
The most affected countries in Europe remain France, Italy and Spain. Brazil
comes second after the USA in a world ranking with over 690 thousand infections
and more than 37 thousand fatalities.

REQUEST Employers Associations in Romania’s
tourism have called on the government to lift all restrictions allowing the
functioning of the terraces and resuming partial activity inside restaurants,
starting June 15th. Representatives of these associations have
explained in an open letter that going beyond this date would be tantamount to
increasing the losses this economy sector has so far incurred, which account
for 30% of the turnover in the previous years. The signatories have called
among other things for a tax cancellation in the second half of the year, the
possibility of paying taxes and duties in installments, for non-reimbursable
European loans and the proper legislation to half local taxes this year. The
government is presently considering several alternatives for jump-starting
Romania’s tourist sector, relying on both local and EU funds, the country’s
Deputy Prime Minister Raluca Turcan has written on a social network.

TAROM As of Monday, Romania’s air carrier TAROM resumed its flights to
London. According to an announcement posted on the company’s Facebook page,
from Britain, TAROM planes will accept only the citizens who have applied for
repatriation and only British citizens will be allowed to board in Bucharest.
Ticket prices start from 267 Euros. Also on Monday, Britain introduces a
mandatory quarantine for travelers arriving in the country.

TRAVEL According to a report published by Forbes magazine Romania ranks
57th among the safest countries to visit in this period. The ranking
has been made after processing data gleaned from 200 countries. The safest
country to visit is Switzerland and second comes Germany. At this moment, the
most dangerous places to visit are Sub-Saharan Africa, South America, some
Middle East and Asian countries.

(translated by bill)