March 27, 2021

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Roxana Vasile, 27.03.2021, 13:55

COVID-19 Authorities in Romania have announced fresh restrictions amid an
increasing number of Covid-19 infections. The new restrictions are to come into
effect on Sunday, and under a government decision released on Friday night,
every Romanian region will have to report their infection rates. An infection
rate of 4 per thousand will force shops and service providers to close down at
18 hours while a curfew is to be observed starting 20 hours during the weekend.
A rate of 7.5 cases per thousand means the new restrictions can be applied the
entire week not only at the weekend. Roughly 59 hundred fresh Covid-19
infections were reported in Romania on Saturday out of 37 thousand tests
conducted. One year on from the onset of the pandemic 930 thousand people were
infected in Romania, which reported a death toll of 23 thousand. The number of Romanians
who got at least one dose of the anti-Covid vaccine stands at roughly 1,900,000.
Half of these have also got the booster dose.

CHISINAU Parliament in the neighboring Romanian-speaking Republic of Moldova is
today marking through a solemn session 103 years since the union of Basserabia
with Romania. The event is to be attended by the presidents of Science Academia
in Romania and the Republic of Moldova, leading figures of culture and MPs. On
March 27th 1918, towards the end of WWI, Basserabia’s Legislature unanimously
voted the union of this province with the Romanian kingdom. It was the first
stage in the process of creating the unitary Romanian state, which was
completed through the joining of other Romanian regions, such as Bukovina,
Transylvania, Banat, Crisana and Maramures, which until then had been part of
Austria-Hungary. In the summer of 1940, through an ultimatum, USSR annexed
Basserabia and northern Bukovina, Romanian territories, which today belong to
the former Soviet republics of Moldova and Ukraine.

DST
Daylight Saving Time begins tonight in Romania when the clocks are to be set
one hour forward and the difference between the local time and GMT will be
three hours. DST was first introduced in Romania back in 1932 and this might be
the last hour change as the European Parliament in 2019 voted in favour of
renouncing this measure inside the EU. Each member state is to decide whether
to scrap the DST or not. The countries willing to keep the summer hour will
make the last change tonight. Those preferring the winter hour will make the
final change in the last Sunday of October.

EARTH HOUR The presidential administration in Bucharest decided to join the ‘Earth
Hour’ event by switching off interior and exterior lights at the Cotroceni
palace, the headquarters of the Romanian presidency on Saturday night. Earth
Hour is at present one of the biggest world movements for the protection of the
environment and it involves millions of people, who are switching off lights
all over the world for one hour in order to prove their commitment to saving
the planet. The movement appeared in Australia in 2007 and since then over 190
countries and territories have joined it.

STRIKE The Bucharest underground has resumed its activity after the employees
mounted a protest on Friday by blocking tracks. According to the authorities,
the protest was illegal and was sparked off by an older dispute concerning the
commercial spaces on its premises, which allegedly had a trade union leader involved.
The protesters have been blamed for having failed to comply with the present
regulations, putting travelers’ health at risk, as they had to use crowded public
transport vehicles. In turn, the employees representatives who have blamed the
authorities for their lack of interest in a constructive dialogue, said the protest
was an unofficial strike sparked off by the board’s decision to cut down
salaries.

(bill)