April 19, 2021 UPDATE

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 19.04.2021, 19:58

DIPLOMACY The head
of the Romanian diplomacy Bogdan Aurescu on Monday participated in the online
meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers. High on the agenda were the situations in
Georgia and Belarus, the Navalny case, the EU-India relations, the situation in
Myanmar, the Iranian nuclear file, the situation in Mozambique and the
Post-Cotonou Agreement. Talks also focused on the latest developments in
Ethiopia and Ukraine. Ministers hailed the conclusions over the southern
vicinity, an EU cooperation strategy for the India-Pacific region and the EU
integrated strategy for Sahel. Minister Aurescu highlighted the importance of
the EU’s consistent and sustained support for Ukraine’s efforts as essential
for consolidating the rule of law and democracy. He has also voiced concern for
the Russian deployment of troops and military gear in Crimea, at Ukraine’s
eastern border, reiterating Romania’s stand for supporting Ukraine’s
territorial integrity and sovereignty. The Romanian official also reiterated
the need for a more active EU involvement in settling the long-lasting
conflicts in the Black Sea region.

COVID-10 Over 1,768 new SARS-CoV-2 infections have been reported in
Romania in the past 24 hours, out of roughly 12 thousand tests carried out, the
Group for Strategic Communication has announced. 149 people have died bringing
the death toll up to 26,500. More than one million people have been infected in
Romania since the beginning of the pandemic and over 90% of them have cured. Over
half a million doses of Pfizer BioNTech vaccine arrived in Romania on Monday, adding
to the nearly four million Romania has so far received from the US-German
company. Since the vaccine rollout kicked off in Romania in late December, over
2.6 million people have been immunized, out of which 1.6 million has got the
booster dose. Romania is presently using the vaccines authorised by the
European Medicines Agency, EMA, namely Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca.

TENNIS The WTA ranking has remained unchanged since last week.
Australian Ashleigh Barty ranks first, followed by Naomi Osaka and Romanian
Simona Halep. Romania boasts four players in top 100. One of these is Patricia
Tig, who went down a notch since last week and is presently ranking 64th.
Sorana Cirstea is 67th and Irina Begu comes 75th. In the
doubles ranking, Raluca Olaru went down a place and is currently ranking 43rd
while Monica Niculescu is on the 55th position.

PANDEMIC
The total number of
COVID-19 infections worldwide is now over 142 million, with 120 million
patients recovered and 3 million dead, according to the latest worldometers.info
updates. As of today, in Italy, only 3 out of 20 provinces remain in the red
zone, with the toughest restrictions. The others are included in the orange
zone, but many will be rated as yellow zone as of next week, allowing the
reopening of restaurants and resuming travels from one region to another. As of
today, 7 million children in Italy return to schools after over a year of
absence. Meanwhile, UK reports decreases both in terms of COVID-related deaths
and in terms of infections, and the number of people getting vaccines every 24
hours has reached 600,000. In Israel, mass vaccination led to the almost
complete reopening of the economy. The infection rate has been staying very low
for over a week. Israeli citizens are no longer bound to wear face covering
outdoor, and school activities are back to normal. Across the ocean, over half
of the total number of adults in the US have received at least a first dose of anti-COVID
vaccine.

(bill)