October 28, 2021 UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 28.10.2021, 19:55

Covid-19. Almost
127,000 people received the Covid vaccine in the last 24 hours in Romania, of
whom 90,000 got their first dose. More than 6.1 million Romanians are fully
vaccinated. The pace of vaccination has grown constantly recently and the
authorities are hoping to see a 70% immunisation rate among its population over
the age of 12 by the end of the year if the current rate is maintained. Some 13,000 new Covid infections and 415 related fatalities were
reported on Thursday. The incidence rate in Bucharest dropped slightly to 15.67
cases per 1,000 inhabitants.

Recovery. EU finance ministers endorsed the European Commission’s
recommendations regarding the recovery and resilience plans of Romania, Estonia
and Finland. This was the last procedure to be met before Romania is able to
access the allocated funds, with the first 3.6 billion euros worth of
pre-financing to arrive by the end of the year. Romania is entitled in total to
over 29 billion euros under the recovery and resilience plan. The vice-president
of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis said
the allocation is not affected by the fact that Romania does not have a
government with full powers at the moment.

Energy. Romanians will not pay more
for energy than last December, despite the price hikes, promised the country’s
energy minister Virgil Popescu. On Wednesday, the Chamber of Deputies passed a
government emergency order to subsidise electricity and natural gas costs for
home users, hospitals, schools, city halls and NGOs. SMEs too are expected to
benefit from the financial assistance scheme, as their energy costs will not
include distribution or transport fees. The measure is to be applied from 1st
November until the end of March next year.

Moldova.
The European Union is ready to support the Republic of Moldova overcome its
energy crisis, the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Thursday in Brussels at the end of the EU-Moldova
Association Council. At a press conference held jointly with Moldovan prime
minister Natalia Gavriliță, Borrel said the support pledged by the European Commission
to Moldova would help the most vulnerable citizens. Gavriliță said Moldovan
officials continue talks with the Russian giant Gazprom and are hoping to reach
what she described as an accessible long-term contract. Earlier, the European
Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the EU would provide 60
million euros to Moldova to help with its gas crisis. An ex-Soviet state with a
majority Romanian-speaking population, Moldova recently asked for the EU’s
assistance after Gazprom reduced its gas deliveries after it refused to agree
to considerably higher prices.

Exercise. The NATO Noble Blueprint exercise demonstrates the cohesion of
the allied countries, said the Romanian chief of defence staff, lieutenant
general Daniel Petrescu in Constanţa as this exercise hosted by Romania came to
an end. The drills included land and air recognisance missions in Romania,
visits to key defence units and talks on synchronising domestic and allied
actions. Noble Blueprint 21 forms part of a programme of joint exercises and
training aimed to consolidate the collective defence measures of NATO members.

Tennis. World
no. 18 Simona Halep reached the quarterfinals at Transylvania Open, a WTA
tennis tournament hosted by Cluj Napoca, in western Romania. She defeated
Russia’s Varvara Graceva and will next face another Romanian
player Jaqueline Cristian. Two other Romanian players were in action on
Wednesday, but lost, Ana Bogdan to the US Open winner Emma Răducanu, and Irina
Bara to Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson. (CM)