December 9, 2020

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 09.12.2020, 13:55

COVID-19 IN ROMANIA – On Wednesday another 7,365 new COVID-19 infections and 161 related
deaths were announced. 1,271 people are in intensive care. Most new cases were
reported in the capital-city Bucharest, where the infection rate has reached
6.5 per thousand inhabitants. The total number of infections has exceeded 532
thousand. Nearly 80% of people infected have recovered. The national death toll
has reached 12,821. Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis said the first batch of
the 3 million COVID-19 ordered tests will be arriving within the week. Days
from now the authorities are also expecting the delivery of the 300 ventilators
for intensive care units.

COVID-19 IN THE WORLD – The global number of infections has exceeded 68.5
million while over 1.5 million people have died to the virus since the start of
the outbreak, the latest worldometers.info update reveals. Over 47 million
people around the world have recovered. The United States is the most affected
country, with over 15.5 million infections and at least 293 thousand people dead.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump signed an executive decree, ensuring that
American citizens will be the first to be administered anti-COVID-19 vaccines
developed by American pharmaceutical companies. American health experts have
accused the President’s unethical decision, according to which the rest of the
world will have to mainly rely on European-based drug manufacturers. Meanwhile,
the anti-COVID-19 vaccination campaign started in Great Britain, which is the
first country in the world to approve the vaccine developed by Pfizer. People
over 80 years old and health workers will be the first to receive the vaccine,
which experts say has a 95% efficiency. Over 62 thousand people have died in
Great Britain to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

NEGOTIATION
– As the vote count for Sunday’s parliamentary election is drawing to a close,
negotiations are starting over the structure of the new Government. The
center-right political parties are trying to reach consensus over forming a
majority in Parliament, ahead of consultations with President Klaus Iohannis.
The Liberal Party, currently in power, the party that grabbed the second
highest number of votes on December 6, claims they can make up a Parliament
majority with the Save Romania Union – PLUS Alliance and the Democratic Union
of Ethnic Hungarians. Party officials estimate they can rely on a comfortable
majority of 244 MPs, adding to which will be representatives of national
minorities. The three center-right parties must now agree on a governing
program and distribute the 16 Ministries among themselves. On the other hand,
the Social-Democratic Party has also expressed its willingness to govern,
considering it grabbed the highest number of votes in the election. The
Social-Democrats said they are entitled to nominate the Prime Minister, based
on the result in the election, and thus will not be voting for a Liberal
Cabinet. The Social-Democrats will be proposing Dr. Alexandru Rafila, a WHO
expert, for the position of Prime Minister. The Social-Democratic Party is
willing to accept two options: either a minority Government led by the
Social-Democratic Party, or a technocratic Government led by a Social-Democrat
Prime Minister. For the first time in the history of Romania, Parliament will
also include the Alliance for the Union of Romanians, a recently founded
far-right party, which grabbed the fourth-highest number of votes in the
parliamentary election.

BREXIT -
Over 670 thousand Romanians have filed for residence rights in the United
Kingdom, considering immigration rules will change for European citizens
arriving in this country starting January 2021. According to data provided by
an association defending the interests of European citizens in the UK, citizens
from Poland, Italy, Portugal, Spain and France also filed a large number of
such applications. Over 3.9 million applications were filed until September,
59% of applicants having received the status of permanent resident. This status
is granted to people who can provide proof of 5 years’ continuous residence on
British territory, allowing them to continue to work and receive social welfare
after Brexit.

FOOTBALL -
The Romanian Football Federation has taken note of the incident reported in the
Champions League match pitting PSG of France against Istanbul Basaksehir. The
match was suspended after Romanian Sebastian Colţescu, the fourth official
delegated for that match, used a racist term to describe the assistant manager
of the Turkish club, Cameroonian Pierre Achille Webo, whom the central referee,
Romanian Ovidiu Haţegan, showed a red booking. Right after the incident the
technical staff of the Turkish club and all its players walked off the pitch on
minute 16. The Union of European Football Association announced it will launch
a comprehensive investigation, while the match, counting towards Champions
League Group H, will be resumed tonight with new referees. In a post on its
website, the Romanian Football Federation firmly distanced itself from any
racist or xenophobic action or statement. (V. Palcu)