26 July 2020, UPDATE

Romania nears 45,000 coronavirus cases./ Simona Halep pulls out of Palermo tournament./ Romanian helmer Cristi Puiu to sit on jury of Venice Festival.

Newsroom, 26.07.2020, 19:20

Coronavirus
Romania. The number of coronavirus cases in Romania hits 44,798, with more than 1,000 new cases for the
fifth day in a row. More than 25,600 people
have recovered and over 6,600 are in hospital, including 351 in intensive care.
22 new deaths were reported on Sunday, taking the death toll to 2,187. The town of Faget
and three nearby villages in Timis county, in western part of Romania, are
in lockdown for 14 days beginning on Sunday evening. Faget, where 47 cases were
confirmed, is the third locality in Romania to go into lockdown after Cartojani
in Giurgiu county and Gornet in Prahova county, in the south. In another move,
Romanians will no longer be able to travel to Cyprus for tourism, and if they
travel for different purposes, they will be ordered to isolate for 14 days. It
is now also obligatory to produce a negative Covid-19 test for travellers
arriving in Greece from Romania by plane, not just for those arriving by road.
The test must have been conducted no more than 72 hours prior. Travellers who
have not had time to do the test before the new measure was introduced will be
tested at the airport in Greece on Tuesday and Wednesday. New entry conditions
are also in place for travellers arriving in Austria from Romania. A negative
Covid-19 test must now be produced that was conducted 72 hours prior instead of
4 days prior, and the isolation period has been reduced from 14 to 10 days.
These measures will remain in place at least until the end of September. Italy
has also changed the rules for travellers from Romania and Bulgaria, who are
now ordered to isolate for 14 days on arriving in Italy.

List. The National Committee for Emergency Situations has updated the
list of countries and regions with a high epidemiological risk valid as of
Sunday midnight. All travellers from these countries will be ordered to isolate
for 14 days at home, at another location of their choosing or in a
government-run facility. The list features 44 countries, including Argentina,
Brazil, Israel, Luxemburg, the Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, North
Macedonia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Hertegovina, Serbia, Russia and the United States.
The list was last updated on 7th July.

Coronavirus world. New records are being reached
around the world in terms of the number of infections with the novel
coronavirus. Statistical figures show that more than a third of all cases were
reported since 1st of July, in less than a month. The United States
is the worst hit in terms of the death toll, and Mexico is also seeing a spike
in new infections. South Korea, a country held as an example for it kept the
pandemic in check, has announced more than 100 new infections. European nations
are also faced with a massive rise in the number of new infections, being
caught between containing the new outbreaks and restarting their economies. A
spike in cases in Spain has led to new measures amid fears of a second wave. Germany
has also reached a record number of infections in the last two months. Europe’s
worst hit countries are the UK, with 45,000 deaths, Italy with 35,000 and
France with 30,000.

Tennis. World no. 2 Simona Halep has
pulled out of the WTA tennis tournament in Palermo, Italy, the first in the
women’s game to take place since the coronavirus outbreak. Organisers say Halep
decided to withdraw after Italy decided to quarantine all travellers from Romania
and Bulgaria, which have seen a surge in the number of coronavirus cases. The tournament
on Palermo is held on clay between the 3rd and 9th
August. Halep last played against Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina in February, in
the final of the Dubai tournament, which she won. The director of the Palermo
competition Oliveiro Palma said he was sad and disappointed with Halep’s
decision.

Film. Romanian Cristi
Puiu, German director Christian Petzold, the French actor Ludivine Sagnier, the
Italian writer Nicola Lagioia, the British director Joanna Hogg and the
Austrian director Veronika Franz are part of the jury of the 77th
Venice Film Festival held between 2nd and 22nd September.
The Australian actor Cate Blanchett is the president of the jury. A leading
figure of the Romanian New Wave, 53-year-old Cristi Puiu made his debut in
2001. His second feature film, the black comedy The Death of Mr Lazarescu from
2005 had immense success and won the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes Festival. This year at the Berlin Festival, Puiu won best director award in the Encounters sidebar with Malmkrog.

Weather. A bad weather alert is in place in
Romania for most of the country from Sunday evening till Monday evening. Torrential
rain, thunderstorms, wind and hail storms are expected, first in the west and
north-west and then in the north, centre and the hilly and mountainous regions.
The amount of precipitation is expected to pass 25 litres per square metre and
even reach 50 in some areas. In the
south and south-east, the weather remains hot and the humidity and heat ratio
is forecast to go beyond the critical threshold of 80. (CM)