April 26, 2020
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 26.04.2020, 14:01
COVID-19 In the two months since the start of the coronavirus epidemic, more than 11 thousand people have been infected and 608 people have died in Romania, according to data made public today by the Strategic Communication Group. 3,054 patients have been cured and discharged from hospital. Currently, there are 236 patients in intensive care. Abroad, 1512 Romanian citizens have been confirmed as being infected, mostly in Italy, and 74 have died.
PANDEMIC Almost 3 million people across the world have been infected with the new coronavirus and more than 200 thousand have died of Covid-19. Europe reports the largest number of deaths, in particular in Italy, Spain, France and Great Britain. Some 53 thousand people have died in the US. The situation, however, seems to be getting more stable in many parts of Europe, and governments are now considering a gradual relaxation of restrictions. Some have already announced concrete measures to that end. The Chinese authorities have announced that in Wuhan, the origin of the outbreak, all patients have been discharged. The World Health Organization has drawn attention to the fact that the people who got cured are not automatically protected from getting reinfected. So far, no study has managed to show that the presence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies can provide immunity against successive infections in humans. The clarification was made as some states had suggested that finding the antibodies might be the starting point for a so-called immunity passport, which would allow people to travel and work, starting from the assumption that they are protected from a new infection.
TAROM The Romanian state-owned airline TAROM, has announced it resumes flight on May 2nd. The first destination will be Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, and other flights to Athens, Paris and Frankfurt will be operated in the following days. The Romanian low-cost company Blue Air has too announced that it will resume flights. At Thursdays meeting, the Romanian Government approved a salvage loan for the two Romanian companies. They had previously requested 130 million Euro to get over the crisis triggered by the pandemic. Next month, the European Commission will present a set of rules, including with regard to social distancing in airports and on board the planes, in order to ensure the safety of passengers once restrictions are lifted, the Romanian EU Commissioner for Transport Adina Valean has announced.
CHERNOBYL April 26th is the International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day, established by the UN in 2016 to draw attention to the long-term consequences of the nuclear disaster. 34 years have passes since the accident at Chernobyl, dubbed the most serious in history. Following an explosion at reactor no.4 of the nuclear power plant, a radioactive cloud was formed, which was carried across Europe and affected millions of people. The Soviet authorities hid the scale of the disaster and not even today the total number of the victims is known for sure. The cloud reached Romania too, and the highest levels of contamination were recorded in Iasi, Suceava, Targu Mures, Galati and Tulcea. Only four days after the disaster, the then Communist president Nicolae Ceausescu summoned the Executive Committee of the Communist Party, and the population was informed on May 2nd.
STURDZA Prince Mihai Dimitrie Sturdza, a historian and diplomat, has died in Paris, aged 86. He was the great-grandson of Mihail Sturdza, the ruler of Moldavia between 1834 – 1849. In 1952, Mihai Dimitre Sturdza was arrested by the Communist regime, accused of non-disclosing a plot, and was sent to labour camps. He was released in 1954 and managed to enroll with the Filology Faculty of Bucharest university, which he graduated in 1960. He left the country in 1963 and settled in Paris. He studied political sciences and worked for the Cultural and Scientific Exchange Department of the French Foreign Ministry until 1995. He worked as an interpreter for Charles de Gaulle and Valery Giscard dEstaing. Between 1986 and 1995 he was a political editor with the Romanian Department of the Free Europe radio station in Munich. At the end of this activity he received a letter of congratulations from the president of the US, Bill Clinton. Mihai Dimitre Sturdza was also a prominent historian and his works cover all genres, from heraldry, genealogy and the Romanian – Russian relations, to history of culture. His studies and volumes have been published by prestigious publishers in Paris, Munich, Bucharest and Iasi. (M.Ignatescu)
