July 6, 2020 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 06.07.2020, 19:48

COVID-19 IN ROMANIA
– Another 250 cases of corona infection were reported in Romania on Monday,
taking the total number of Covid-19 contaminations to 29.233. 21,413 people have
been discharged from hospital and 227 are in intensive care. The death toll
stands at 1,768. Health Minister Nelu Tataru has announced that the Government
has passed a law regarding special sanitary and health measures aimed at
helping the authorities effectively manage the pandemic. On Friday
Constitutional Court judges ruled that compulsory isolation, quarantine and
hospitalization cannot be regulated through a government decree, as the case
has been in Romania so far. Minister Tataru has called on the population to
observe the rules and asked medical staff to better explain to patients how the
new virus affects them. He added that postponing the new relaxation measures
was caused by the high number of corona cases reported in the past 3 weeks.

COVID-19 IN THE WORLD- The coronavirus pandemic has killed
at least 536 thousand people around the world since its outbreak in China, in
December, according to worldometers.info. At least 11.5 million cases of
contamination have been registered, with 6.5 million patients having recovered.
The US is the most affected country with 132 thousand deaths and almost 3
million cases of contamination. The number of contaminations continues to grow
across Latin America, especially in Brazil. In Europe, the most affected
countries are the UK, Italy, France and Spain. Greece has announced that it
will close the border with Serbia due to the increasing number of cases on the
Serbian territory.

PRIME MINISTER – Romania’s Prime Minister Ludovic Orban on
Monday appeared before the Chamber of Deputies, to answer a number of questions
regarding his handling of the pandemic, including the procurement of face masks
by the state-controlled Unifarm company, whose suspended manager, Adrian Ionel,
has been indicted for bribe-taking. The Liberal Prime Minister said the topic
up for debate is unrelated to his activity as Prime Minister, accusing the
Social-Democratic Party in opposition of trying to make a connection between
his Cabinet and the activity of a state company under legal scrutiny. Prime
Minister Orban explained that hospital managers were replaced for their blatant
lack of responsibility, adding that no one ordered procurement of medical gear
outside legal procedures. Ludovic Orban expressed hope Parliament’s Inquiry
Commission will shed some light on this matter. In turn, Social-Democrat
interim leader Marcel Ciolacu claims that, in the past four months, the
Government has represented not the citizens’ best interests, but their own.
Ciolacu wants a no-confidence vote against the Orban Cabinet. Last month,
Adrian Ionel, the manager of Unifarm, was placed under pre-trial arrest.
Anticorruption prosecutors claim he demanded €750,000 in bribe for the
attribution of a contract for the procurement of surgical masks and protection
gear. Ionel had also held that position illegally since 2016.

BACCALAUREATE-
141 high school graduates from Romania have registered for the special session
of the Baccalaureate exam which started on Monday in Romania. Sitting for the
Baccalaureate exam in this special session are pupils who could not attend the
regular session due to medical problems. The last exam of the Baccalaureate
session is scheduled for Thursday and the first results will be published on
Friday. 64.5% of the pupils who took the Baccalaureate exam in the June-July
session have passed.

GREECE – The Foreign Ministry continues to talk with Greek
authorities to reduce wait times on the Kulata-Promachonas border crossing
point. The Ministry says the Greek authorities can modify border crossing
proceedings depending on the number of corona infections without due notice.
According to Romania’s Consulate in Thessaloniki, the line of cars waiting to
cross on Monday spread three kilometers, with average wait times standing at 1
and a half hours.

MORICONE -
Italian composer Ennio Moricone has passed away aged 91. Morricone wrote
soundtrack music for hundreds of films and TV productions and became famous in
the 1960s following his partnership with director Sergio Leone, known as the
inventor of the ‘spaghetti western’ genre. Morricone also collaborated with
Romanian pan flute player Gheorghe Zamfir, whose performance was included in
the soundtrack for Once Upon a Time in America. The Italian political class
has paid homage to the artist who won the Oscar Awards in 2007 and 2016. (Translated
by L. Simion & V. Palcu)