June 7, 2021

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 07.06.2021, 13:55

Covid-19 Romania. Vaccine. Romania today saw
the lowest number of new Covid infections in the last year, with
only 89 daily cases reported. Some 1,670 Covid patients are receiving hospital
treatment, including 315 in intensive care. 96% of the persons who contracted
Covid-19 in Romania have recovered. A
new delivery of over 964,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is arriving
in Romania today at the airports in Bucharest, Cluj Napoca and Timişoara.

Covid-19 Europe.
Four more Italian regions, namely Abruzzo, Liguria, Umbria and Veneto, are from
today in the white zone, with an incidence rate under 50 cases per 100,000
inhabitants. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent in Rome, travel
restrictions in the rest of the country, which is still in the yellow zone,
will come into effect one hour later, from midnight instead of 11 pm. Spain is
easing restrictions on arrivals into the country, with travellers who are fully
vaccinated with one of the four vaccines approved in the European Union being
able to enter without any other condition, while other travellers must produce
a negative Covid test result. Spain is thus seeking to revive its tourism
industry, which has been badly hit by the pandemic. Spain is a safe
destination, said Spanish health minister Carolina Dias on social media, adding
that her country is in the process of reclaiming its global leadership in
tourism.

5G. A bill on the
implementation of 5G networks is today being put to the vote in the Romanian
Senate, which is the decision-making body in this respect. On Friday, the bill
was amended and approved by the specialist committees. Initiated by the
government, the bill contains the measures needed to authorise producers of
technology, equipment and software programs used in 5G communications networks
and information infrastructures. The president of the Senate’s defence
committee, the Liberal MP Nicoleta
Pauliuc described the bill as a solution to the threats and vulnerabilities
faced by national security with respect to communications.

EU. The EU Justice and Home Affairs
Council is meeting today and tomorrow in Luxembourg. On the first day, EU
justice ministers are discussing ways to combat illegal online content,
e-justice and the protection of vulnerable adults. On Tuesday, talks will focus
on ways to combat crime and terrorism, migration and asylum. A special subject
on the agenda will be the strategy for the Schengen free movement area, with a
plan to reform it being presented last week in Brussels. The EU commissioner for
home affairs Ylva Johansson stood for
the entry of Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia to Schengen as soon as possible. The
European Commission recalls in its strategy that Romania and Bulgaria, and
recently also Croatia, received positive evaluations with respect to their

Statistics. The monthly
average total income per household in Romania stood at some 1,000 euros in
2020, with 83% going to expenses, shows a report from the National Institute
for Statistics published on Monday. Salaries and associated incomes accounted
for the most important source of household income last year, at 68.2%, down
0.4% compared with the previous year. A household spent on average 888 euros a
month, down 1.6% compared with the previous year. The report shows that
household spending mainly covered food and non-food products, services,
transfers to the public and private administration and social security
contributions in the form of tax and other duties, as well as needs related to
household production.

Football. Romania lost their
friendly match against England nil-1 held in Middlesbrough on Sunday night. In another friendly on
Wednesday, Romania were also defeated by Georgia 1-2, the first time they lost
to this side. This was Romania’s third consecutive loss, after being defeated
by Germany nil-1 and Armenia 2-3 in the World Cup qualifiers, having also
failed to qualify for the 2020 European Championship. Romania last reached a
World Cup tournament in 1998, when it was hosted by France.

Eclipse. A partial
solar eclipse will be visible this week in the northern half of Romania. It can
best be seen from Satu Mare on Thursday at 1 pm, when the moon will cover 2% of
the sun’s disk. The phenomenon will last between a few minutes and 1 hour and
18 minutes at most, depending on where it is observed and can only be watched
with special filters. An intuitive map of the solar eclipse across Romania is
available on the website of the Bucharest Astronomical Observatory. (CM)