September 26, 2020

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 26.09.2020, 14:00

ELECTION
– The campaign for the local election scheduled on Sunday ended on Saturday
morning. Originally slated for June, the election was postponed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, and local officials got their mandates extended. Over 18
million eligible voters are expected to hit the polls to elect 41 presidents of
county councils, over 1,300 county councilmen, 40,000 local councilmen and
3,200 mayors. The election will consist of one round. The main competitors are
the Social-Democratic Party, currently holding Parliament majority, and the
National Liberal Party in power. The election is also seen as a test ahead of
the legislative election scheduled for December 6. The vote will unfold with
the strict observance of health safety measures, such as wearing masks or
maintaining physical distance from people involved in the election process.

MULTILATERALISM
– Romania’s Foreign Minister, Bogdan Aurescu, on Friday attended the
ministerial meeting of the Alliance for Multilateralism. The Romanian official
pointed out that reconsolidating democratic values and rule-based international
law is key to stepping up the robustness of societies. The meeting was held on
the sidelines of the 75th UN General Assembly meeting, held online. The
serious effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on politics, the economy and society
have raised unprecedented challenges against multilateralism, international
law, rule-based order and democratic values, the Romanian official pointed out.
Bogdan Aurescu said Romania has joined the Coronavirus Global Response
initiative, redirecting several of its development assistance programmes to
health emergencies reported in some partner states, including in its eastern
vicinity and in Sub-Saharan Africa. Moreover, half of Romania’s contributions
to international development cooperation has been redirected to answer the
challenges generated by the coronavirus pandemic.

COVID-19
IN ROMANIA – 1,552 new COVID-19 infections have been reported in the last 24
hours in Romania. Since the outbreak of the pandemic 7 months ago, the number
of infections has exceeded 121,000. Some 4,700 people have died to the virus
and 500 people are currently in intensive care. Family physicians have
recommended the population should take the vaccine against seasonal flu in
order to prevent the overlap of influenza and COVID-19. People over 65 years of
age suffering from chronic illness, children and elderly in institutional care,
medical personnel and pregnant women will be administered the anti-flu shots
free of charge as part of a campaign conducted by the Health Ministry.

COVID-19
IN THE WORLD – 2 million COVID-19 casualties, which is double the global death
toll at present, is very probable, unless we do everything in our power to
combat the pandemic, the WHO Health Emergencies director, Michael Ryan, has
warned. Some 1 million people have died since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out
in late 2019 in China. 33 million people worldwide have got infected with the
new coronavirus.

TENNIS -
Two Romanian tennis players outside the WTA Top 100, Monica Niculescu and Irina
Bara, have managed to qualify to the Roland Garos main draw, due to start on
Sunday. In the first round Niculescu will play Danielle Collins of the United
States while Bara will take on Donna Vekić of Croatia. Another five Romanians
have been seeded in the main draw at Roland Garros. Simona Halep, world no. 2
and seeded first, will play Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain. In case of a win,
Halep will then play the winner of the match pitting another Romanian, Irina
Begu, against Jil Teichmann of Switzerland. Patricia Ţig will play Stefanie
Voegele of Switzerland, Sorana Cîrstea will go up against Elena Rybakina of
Kazakhstan, while Ana Bogdan will take on Timea Babos of Hungary. Romania will
also be represented in the men’s and women’s doubles.

HANDBALL
– Romanian handball club SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea is today playing CSKA Moscow away
from home in Champions League Group B. In the previous group fixture, SCM lost
to Odense Handbold at home. The team is ranked 7th in the group
tables with zero points. The other Romanian club in playing in Champions
League, CSM Bucharest, has two wins and is top of the tables in Group A. CSM is
playing runner-up Rostov Don of Russia at home. The match was previously
postponed due to a COVID-19 infection reported at the Russian club.

WEATHER
– Over three quarters of Romania’s territory are under a code orange alert
against heavy rain, strong wind, hail and electric storms. The alert is in
place until Saturday night and was issued for areas in the northwest, south and
east of the country. A yellow code has also been issued against heavy rain for
the rest of the country. Temperatures are expected to drop and storms will hit
mountainous regions in particular.

(Translated
by V. Palcu)