September 29, 2020
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 29.09.2020, 13:55
Elections. The partial results of Sundays local elections in Romania show important changes in the management of the county capitals. According to the partial counting of votes, the governing National Liberal Party won 15 municipalities, the opposition Social Democratic Party 14, USR-PLUS 4 and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians also 4. Regarding the County Councils, the Social Democrats got 20, the Liberals 17 and the Union of Ethnic Hungarians 4. In Bucharest, the independent candidate Nicusor Dan, supported by Liberals and USR PLUS, obtained about 43% of the votes for the position of mayor general of Bucharest, and the current mayor, Gabriela Firea, the Social Democratic candidate, got almost 38%, according to partial data from the Central Electoral Bureau.
Covid-19 RO. The Bucharest authorities have announced today 1470 new cases of COVID-19. So far, on the territory of Romania, over 125,400 cases of infection with the new coronavirus have been confirmed. Another 44 people infected with SARS-CoV-2 died, the total number of deaths in Romania due to COVID-19 reaching 4,792. 551 patients are in intensive care, the Strategic Communication Group has also informed. Also today, the National Institute of Public Health announced that 34.3% of all cases of new coronavirus infection were registered in the last week in Bucharest, Iasi (northeast), Bacau (east), and Constanta (south-east).
Pandemic. More than a million people have died worldwide due to the new coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has stated that the figure is shocking and experts say the official death toll is lower than the actual number, given the low testing in many countries. United States, Brazil and India reported together approximately half of the total deaths. On Tuesday, figures provided by the Indian Ministry of Health showed that India had the fewest daily deaths, since August 3 to date – 776 people. In France, one of the European countries facing a significant increase in the number of cases and outbreaks of coronavirus, a decrease in the number of new cases in the last 24 hours was registered for the first time, 4,070 compared to the 11,000 announced a day before. Meanwhile, authorities continue to impose some restrictions to slow the spread of the virus. The Czech government is considering a new state of emergency, the second after the one in spring, at the beginning of the pandemic.
Brexit. The last round of talks scheduled between the European Union and the United Kingdom on a free trade agreement begins today in Brussels. If no agreement is reached, higher taxes and quotas will be introduced after the expiry of the transition period for Brexit at the end of this year. The EU has expressed hope that the UK will soften its position on controversial issues, such as government subsidies, fishing rights and dispute mechanisms. Britain left the EU in January, with the two sides stalled in negotiations for a new trade deal to enter into force in 2021. EU leaders will discuss the issue at next months summit, but the prospect of a no-deal Brexit is still possible.
Tennis. Romanian tennis player Patricia Ţig qualified, for the first time, for the second round of the Grand Slam tournament at Roland Garros, after defeating, last night, the Swiss Stefanie Voegele, in two sets. In the second round, Tig will face Christina McHale. Also in the second round, two Romanians, Simona Halep (first seed) and Irina Begu will play against each other. Four other Romanians will play in the first round today, Sorana Cirstea with the Kazakh Elena Ribakina, Ana Bogdan with the Hungarian Timea Babos, Monica Niculescu against the American Danielle Collins and Irina Bara against the Croatian Donna Vekic. (M. Ignatescu)
