May 13, 2021
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Newsroom, 13.05.2021, 13:55
ALERT As of today, the state of alert in Romania is extended by another month. Some restrictions have been lifted, however, such as the one regarding participation in religious processions or pilgrimages. Other measures still remain in place. Pilot cultural and sports events will also be organised, with attendance allowed for people who have got the vaccine, who have recovered from COVID-19 in the past 3 months, or who test negative for the disease. Private or public celebrations or parties, whether indoors or outdoors, are still banned.
COVID-19 President Klaus Iohannis has a working meeting scheduled today with PM Florin Cîţu, several other Cabinet members, the head of the Department for Emergency Situations, Raed Arafat, and the head of the National Infectious Disease Monitoring and Control Centre with the Public Health Institute, Adriana Pistol. Also attending will be deputy PM Dan Barna, the interior minister Lucian Bode, the defence minister Nicolae Ciucă, and the health minister Ioana Mihăilă. The meeting will focus on the lifting of COVID-19 containment measures. Some 130,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses are scheduled to reach Bucharest today. So far, Romania has received over 2.2 million vaccine doses from the British-Swedish company. More than 3.7 million people have received Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca jabs in Romania, and two-thirds of them have also got the booster dose. Meanwhile, the entire country is in the so-called green scenario. According to the Strategic Communication Group, the SARS-CoV-2 infection rate in Bucharest is 1.42 per thousand. On Thursday 953 new COVID-19 cases and 75 related deaths were reported, as well as 829 patients in intensive care.
CONFERENCE The Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu and his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias co-chair today an informal conference call of EU foreign ministers. Also attending the online meeting are the foreign ministers of Albania, Olta Xhacka and of North Macedonia, Bujar Osmani, as well as EU officials. According to the Romanian foreign ministry, Bogdan Aurescu will emphasise that ‘the EU enlargement process must remain a major priority for the Union, given the transforming power of this European policy.’ Todays meeting takes place after a recent meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council, which included a strategic discussion on the Western Balkans, at the request of Romania and other member states.
VISIT The Romanian Senate Speaker Anca Dragu is on a 3-day official visit to Spain, as of today, at the invitation of her counterpart Maria Pilar Llop Cuenca. The visit is aimed at strengthening political dialogue and the traditional friendship between the 2 countries. On the same occasion, in the Patio de los Naranjos Hall of the Spanish Senate, an Exhibition of Romanian and Spanish Diplomatic Archives will be opened. The exhibition is devoted to the 140 years of diplomatic relations between the 2 countries. The Romanian delegation will also have online meetings with members of the Romanian community in Spain, and will visit the NATO Combined Air Operations Centre and the EU Satellite Centre.
CORRUPTION The former mayor of Bucharests Sector 5, Marian Vanghelie, was sentenced on Thursday to 11 years and 8 months in prison, in a corruption case. The ruling is not final. He was also ordered to pay damages of over 15 million euro to the Bucharest Sector 5 City Hall. Marian Vanghelie was indicted in 2015 for 9 counts of bribe-taking and abuse of office and 7 counts of money laundering. According to the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, in 2006 – 2014, Marian Vanghelie, then a mayor, asked for and received undue benefits in the amount of nearly 30 million euro (accounting for a fee of 20% of the contracts). A former member of the Social Democratic Party (in opposition), Marian Vanghelie was a mayor between 2000 and 2016, and in the 2020 local elections he ran unsuccessfully for a new term in office.
ISRAEL Hamas fired rockets on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem early on Thursday, with Israel promising to carry on strikes against the Islamist group in Gaza, although the US president Joe Biden had said the clashes, the most violent in recent years, will be over soon, Reuters reports. Over 1,000 rockets fired from Gaza strip on Monday hit Israel, and scores of people were killed and hundreds wounded so far, mostly Palestinians. The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, called for the de-escalation of the conflict.
TENNIS The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, number 3 in the world, announced having suffered a torn calf muscle which forced her out of the Italian Open, in Wednesdays match against Germanys Angelique Kerber. She says she will have an MRI investigation to determine how serious the injury is. The defending champion in Foro Italico, the Romanian player withdrew in the second set of the match against Kerber, after she had won the first set. Given the preliminary diagnosis, she risks missing the Roland Garros tournament due to start on May 30. Halep won the Paris tournament in 2018. (tr. A.M. Popescu)
