April 15, 2020

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Newsroom, 15.04.2020, 13:55

MEASURES The Romanian government is presently debating a draft emergency
ordinance aimed at extending the right to technical unemployment compensations
to other categories of workers, which weren’t comprised in the initial project.
So, lawyers, art impresarios and people with income coming from many activities
may opt from only one activity, which is the most advantageous. The Executive
is today also analyzing a memorandum over supporting major research projects in
the field of medical care. Prime Minister Orban has announced that he will
table an emergency ordinance, which stipulates through budget adjustment, more
money for the country’s healthcare system, for the labour Ministry and social
protection. The ceiling for state-granted credits to small and medium-sized
enterprises is to be lifted in order to ensure the necessary working or
investment capital. Local authorities will be allotted more money from the
income tax; cities 2% while counties 1%.

TALKS Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis is today having talks with Prime Minister
Ludovic Orban and members of the Bucharest government over the measures to be
imposed after the state of emergency was extended for another month. Before the
meeting the Romanian president said he would call for a revision of a previous
agreement between the Interior Ministry and the Romanian Orthodox Church, under
which police are offering assistance to priests and believers during Easter. A
series of restrictions have been eased to allow for religious services but people
will have to comply with social distancing rules. The president had called on
the Romanians to stay at home, because otherwise the number of fatalities will
increase after Easter. Another 5 people have been killed by the Covid virus in
Romania bringing the death toll to 362. The total number of people infected has
exceeded 7.200 out of which 1.217 have been cured and
released from hospitals. 245 patients are in the intensive care units at
present. 709 Romanians are infected by the coronavirus abroad, 420 of them in
Italy. 52 Romanian nationals from the diaspora have been killed by the virus
since the outbreak.

POLL
The level of concern over the present medical situation tends to intensify both
in countries with little restrictions, such as Poland or the Netherlands, and
in countries with severe restrictions such as Italy, Spain or France – a poll
published today by the Kantar company shows. According to the study, two rather
optimistic countries like Britain and the United States are seeing an increased
people’s concern only two weeks after the previous poll was published. The
concern of Germans over the present medical situation remains moderate as before.
Romania has 5% more people concerned from the previous report but the level of
80% is very high though. Most of people’s concern in this country is caused by
financial uncertainties. The poll was conducted on more than 45 thousand people
from 50 countries of which 18 hundred from Romania.

TRANSPORT Road carriers in Romania have called on the Romanian presidency and
the government in Bucharest to intervene through diplomatic channels for the
authorities in Germany, Austria and Hungary and other EU members to allow them
access to these countries. In a communiqué published today, representatives of
the National Road Transporters in Romania say that several EU members have
imposed restrictions to professional Romanian drivers, which run against the
principle of the free circulation of road transporters. According to the
organization, several Romanian transport companies said their drivers had not
been allowed to leave the country or travel to countries like Germany or
Austria and operate on various routes in these countries under the contracts
concluded with Romanian companies although the drivers produced all the
necessary documents.

PANDEMIC The number of infections with the new coronavirus at global level is
reaching 2 million and 125 thousand people have been killed. The USA has
reported in the past 24 hours over 22 hundred fatalities, which raises the
death toll to nearly 26 thousand. The most affected countries in Europe remain
Italy, Spain, France and the UK. The president of the European Commission
Ursula von de Leyen today presents recommendations for the EU countries to
gradually lift restrictions although the decision on what restrictions should
be lifted depends on each country. In another development, US president Donald
Trump halted the US funding to the WHO for severely mismanaging the pandemic.

(translated by bill)