June 3, 2021 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 03.06.2021, 20:00

GREEN
CERTIFICATE – The green vaccination certificate will be launched on July 1
at European level, and Romania is currently on schedule with the procedures for
the document to be available starting with this date, announced on Thursday
Andrei Baciu, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Health. The authorities
will launch a secure online platform, where the certificate can be downloaded.
Authenticity will be guaranteed by a QR code, which can be scanned at customs,
and it can be presented both on paper and on the phone. The certificate attests
either the fact that a person was vaccinated against COVID, the fact that they
had the disease, through a not very old positive PCR test, or the absence of
infection at that time, proven by a negative PCR test. The vaccination of
children aged 12 to 15 has also begun, after the European Medicines Agency
authorized the serum for this age group. As of December 27, 2020, almost eight
million doses of Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines
have been administered in Romania throughout the country. More than 4.3 million
people have been immunized, most of them with both doses. The number of new
cases of COVID-19 remains low. All Romanian counties are in the green zone, the
aggregate incidence rate in 14 days being below one case per thousand
inhabitants. On Thursday, 196 new cases of SARS-CoV-2 were reported in more
than 31,770 tests. 365 people are in intensive care. Several measures to ease
the restrictions came into force on June 1.

EUROBAROMETER
– Three quarters of Romanians (76%) believe that the COVID-19 pandemic has had
or will have an impact on their personal financial situation, while the EU
average is 57%, according to the latest Eurobarometer commissioned by the
European Parliament and presented on Thursday. The opinion poll, conducted in
March-April, shows the growing impact of the pandemic on the personal lives and
financial situation of citizens. According to the Eurobarometer, despite the
financial impact of the pandemic, most respondents (58% in the EU and 45% in
Romania, respectively) believe that the health benefits of restrictions in
their country outweigh the negative economic effects they may have caused. The
opinion is present in most EU countries and suggests a change of attitude as
compared to the second half of 2020, when a small majority of citizens
considered the economic effects to be more important. Almost half of the
citizens (48% in the EU, 41% in Romania) know about the measures taken by
Brussels to fight the pandemic, but only 48% of the EU citizens, respectively
52% in Romania, say they are satisfied with them.

GOVERNMENT – Child benefits won’t be
increased this year, and the new pension law is due to take effect in 2023,
Romania’s Prime Minister Florin Cîţu said on Thursday at the end of the weekly government session.
The new law will focus on increasing small pensions and will provide for a
gradual increase of the retirement age for women, which is presently lower than
for men. The Government also adopted a strategic document for digital
governance and the e-management of public services at the level of the
administration. The Prime Minister said all ministries and government agencies
will be connected to a single network, a common database available on cloud,
which will also include projects under the national recovery and resilience
plan. In other news, the Government decided that restaurants can stay open
until 2 AM when hosting private parties.

WRITEOFF
– Liability for crimes of slavery, human trafficking, sexual abuse or torture
of minors will no longer be written off in Romania, after MPs on Thursday
adopted a draft law that brings amendments to articles in the Criminal Code
regulating these crimes. Related sentences will also be increased. People who
learn about such crimes against minors and fail to notify the authorities risk
a maximum prison sentence of two years. The law also stipulates an increase in
the sentences for child pornography reoffenders.

TENNIS -
The pair made up of Irina Begu of Romania and Nadia Podoroska of Argentina on
Thursday advanced to the second round in the women’s doubles at Roland Garros
after defeating Estelle Cascino and Jessika Ponchet of France, 6-3, 6-1. Another
pair, made up of Monica Niculescu of Romania and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia,
defeated 6-0, 6-3 the pair made up of Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus and
Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine. Mihaela
Buzărnescu and Patricia Ţig were ousted by Lara Arruabarrena of Spain and
Caroline Dolehide of the United States. In the women’s singles, Romania has two
representatives left, Ana Bogdan and Sorana Cîrstea, both qualified in
the third round. Cîrstea on Friday will play Daria Kasatkina of Russia, while
Bogdan will go up against Paula
Badosa Gibert of Spain. In men’s doubles, the pair made up of Horia Tecău of Romania and Kevin Krawietz
of Germany will play Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan and Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan. (MI
& VP)