February 26, 2021

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 26.02.2021, 13:55

Covid-19
RO. Starting today, the incidence rate of
infections with the new coronavirus in Romania will be calculated according to
other rules, in the sense that outbreaks will be introduced in the final analysis.
Authorities say that the new rules are in line with the international standards
and other countries are doing the same. According to the head of the Department
for Emergency Situations, Raed Arafat, a slight increase in the incidence of
COVID-19 cases is expected as a result of the new approach. The new outbreaks
that will be introduced in the calculation of COVID-19 cases are reported mainly
in hospitals and care centers. In another development, some 3,700 new cases of
people infected with SARS-CoV-2 were reported within 24 hours after performing
about 36 thousand tests nationwide. In total, since the onset of the pandemic
in Romania, almost 795 thousand cases have been registered. 90% of the Covid-19
patients have been cured. The total
number of deaths has exceeded 20,200. Today is one year since the first case of
COVID-19 was confirmed in Romania. The first death from coronavirus was
officially reported in the country on March 22 last year.

Pandemic. Worldwide, the number of cases of Sars-Cov -2 infection has
exceeded 113 million, and that of deaths 2.5 million. According to
worldometers.info, more than 89 million infected people have been cured.
Meanwhile, European countries have opted for voluntary vaccination against
Covid-19, although some of them, such as France, the United Kingdom or Hungary,
are examining potential certificates or passports to prove it,
international news agencies report. In Germany, coronavirus vaccination is
voluntary and the government has stressed that there are no plans to make it
mandatory. Vaccination is not mandatory in France either. However, the
government has launched an online consultation to find out citizens’ views on
the possibility of implementing a vaccination certificate and whether it should
be mandatory or optional. In the United Kingdom, which was the first country in
the world to launch a mass vaccination program against Covid-19, immunization
is widely accepted by the population. The vaccination plan in Italy is also
voluntary and started with the highest risk groups. For its part, the Austrian
Government insists that vaccination is and will be voluntary and that it has
not yet been decided, for example, whether it can be a condition for carrying
out an activity. The World Health Organization insists that the cure for the
pandemic is to speed up immunization, and the available vaccines promise an
effectiveness of about 90%.

Budget. The Romanian Parliament’s budget-finance committees continue, today, the debates on the 2021
budget bill. Debates are scheduled on
the budgets of several ministries, including the Ministry of Economy, of
Tourism, the Ministry of Development and Agriculture, of Education and Foreign
Affairs, as well as the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Justice. On
Thursday, members of the two committees approved several articles in the draft
budgets and endorsed budgets of some chief authorizing officers. These include the
budgets of the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Interior, the Presidential
Administration, the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. No amendment out of the
more than 3,000 submitted by the opposition was accepted. According to the
calendar established by the joint Permanent Bureaus, the joint sitting of the
Chamber of Deputies and the Senate on the state and social security budgets is
scheduled for Monday. The bill will get the final vote on Tuesday.

Summit. The EU heads of state and
government, including the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, are today
attending a virtual summit on security and defense. Talks focus on means to
improve the collective ability to respond to challenges and issues related to
cyber attacks and hybrid threats. On Thursday, the first day of the summit,
European leaders called for firm restrictions and an accelerated pace of immunization
in order to stop the spread of new coronavirus variants. Officials stressed the
need for coordinated action to combat the COVID-19 pandemic on the continent,
but failed to overcome disagreements over a future vaccination passport.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said there were many
questions about how they would be used, but added that each Member State had to
make its own decision. It has also been agreed that non-essential travel will
be restricted for the time being, but the unrestricted flow of goods and
services within the single market must be ensured, including through the use of
green corridors.

Poseidon 21. Some 700 soldiers, 13 military ships, 9
aircraft, a pyrotechnic intervention vehicle and a remote-controlled underwater
robot will be deployed during the exercise ‘Poseidon 21’ organized by the
Romanian Naval Forces between February 26 and March 6. It is the first
multinational exercise in the Black Sea this year, and involves the participation of forces and equipment
from Bulgaria, France, Greece, Romania, Spain, USA and Turkey. ‘Poseidon 21’ is
an exercise with a high degree of complexity, included in the NATO Training
Program proposed by Romania at the NATO Summit in Warsaw, in 2016, to strengthen
security measures on the European south-eastern flank, as well as to ensure a
continuous presence in the Black Sea region.

Ford. Due to the problems related to the supply of
semiconductors that affect a large part of the world car industry, the Ford
factory in Craiova (southwestern Romania) has suspended for eight days the
production of vehicles and engines. Production would resume on March 10. The
factory representatives have state that, in the eight days off work, the
employees will be paid according to the agreements concluded between the
company and the unions and taking into account the legislation in force. This
month, the Dacia factory, owned by the French group Renault, also stopped
production for five days in Mioveni (southern Romania). The crisis in the
automotive industry is expected to last a few more months and could lead to a
world production of over a million smaller cars this year. (M.I.)