April 9, 2020

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 09.04.2020, 14:16

TOLL The number of Romanians killed by the new coronavirus has today reached
229 – the Strategic Communication Group has announced. The number of those
infected stands at nearly 5 thousand. Two Romanians who came from Italy in
March, have again tested positive for the virus ten days after being released
from hospitals. 651 Romanians have been infected abroad, 400 of them in Italy.
37 Romanian nationals have died abroad since the outbreak.

CONTRACTION The government in Bucharest
is expecting an economic contraction between 1 and 3% after the crisis
triggered by the pandemic, but a real percentage will be calculated only after
April 15th, the country’s Prime Minister Ludovic Orban has told a
private TV channel. The Romanian official has explained that 30% of the economy
has already been affected while budget revenues significantly diminished adding
that another factor to influence the situation is the way in which the other EU
economies are going to react, as many businesses in Romania are depending on
those in the EU.

COVID The number of coronavirus infections has reached 1.5 million worldwide
and 88 thousand people have already been killed by the virus. 330 thousand have
been cured by the disease though. In the USA, the country, where the pandemic
had a rapid evolution, 430 thousand people have been infected and 15 thousand
died so far. Europe remains the most affected continent with 770 thousand
infections and 61 thousand dead, most of them in Spain, Italy, France and
Germany. The European Commission yesterday proposed a ban on unessential trips
to the EU until May 15th extending the present restrictions.
According to the Commission, the measures taken to fight the disease must be applied
for more than 30 days to be effective. At the same time the European Commission
president Ursula von de Leyen has called on the EU members to eliminate
interdiction over the export of medicines to avoid shortages in the bloc. The
European center for disease prevention and control has cautioned there are
still no signs that Europe has reached the peak of the pandemic.

REFUNDS Airline companies must reimburse customers for the flights
cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Union transport commissioner
Adina Valean told Reuters news agency on Wednesday. The commissioner has rejected
calls from carriers to relax EU rules in the field, adding that wider support
from the European institutions is needed in order to implement such a
relaxation. Airlines also seek government support, saying that refunding
hundreds of thousands of tickets will drain them of money. Romanian Transport
Minister Lucian Bode yesterday announced that Bucharest is having talks with
the European Commission for a financial support of 130 billion Euros for
Romanian air transport companies Tarom and Blue Air
currently affected by the pandemic.

(translated by bill)