July 8, 2021

A news roundup

Newsroom, 08.07.2021, 13:55

Covid – 19 ▪ The Romanian government has approved, at the proposal of the National Committee for Emergency Situations, the extension of the state of alert across Romania for another 30 days, starting with July 12. The prevention and control measures in force at the moment will continue to be applied, with some changes. The most important is the extension from 90 to 180 days of the period of exemption from these measures for those persons who have already had the infection. On the other hand, the head of the vaccination campaign, Valeriu Gheorghiţă, has drawn attention to the fact that, as of mid-August, the number of COVID-19 cases in Romania will increase due to the new ‘Delta’ virus strain and he has again called for the population to get vaccinated. Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign in Romania, in December last year, almost 4.8 million people have been vaccinated, of whom about 4.6 million with both doses. 30 new cases of contamination and 3 deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours, and 57 patients are in ICUs.

Covid world ▪ Tens of new cases of infection with the ‘Delta’ strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and one case of ‘Beta’ variant infection have been identified in Bulgaria, Romania’s neighbor. In Japan, the government has today confirmed its intention to introduce a new state of emergency during the Tokyo Olympics, a competition that is set to begin in two weeks time, given that the number of new cases of contamination continues to rise. The Delta variant of the novel coronavirus, first identified in India, continues to spread rapidly around the world. The Australian city of Sydney on Wednesday recorded the highest number of new cases this year, South Korea reported the highest rate since the onset of the pandemic, and a study published in London shows that the number of infections in England has increased 4 times since June until now. In Spain there has been an increase in the number of new cases: 17,000 yesterday, especially among young people. 1% of young people between 20 and 24 who have been infected should be hospitalized – the Spanish authorities have warned. Globally, more than 185 million cases of infection have been reported so far and at least 4 million people have died, according to wordlmeters.info. Most cases and deaths were recorded in the United States, India and Brazil.

Dismissal ▪ Romanias Liberal Prime Minister Florin Citu announced on Thursday that he had submitted to President Klaus Iohannis the request for the dismissal of the Finance Minister, Alexandru Nazare. PM Citu pointed out that he had informed the leaders of the PNL – USR PLUS – UDMR governing coalition about his decision. The PM explained that, upon evaluating the activity of the finance ministry, he discovered delays of some important projects which are aimed at eliminating tax dodging and attracting European funds. Meanwhile, PM Citu will be the interim finance minister.

Summit ▪ Sofia, in Bulgaria, is hosting as of today the 6th summit of the Three Seas Initiative. The summit will assess the progress made so far in the main areas of interest and will equally tackle the functioning of the Investment Fund of the Three Seas Initiative. The organization is a flexible, informal political platform at presidential level, bringing together the 12 EU member states located between the Baltic Sea, the Adriatic Sea and the Black Sea. Romania is represented by President Klaus Iohannis, who will emphasize the importance of implementing priority strategic interconnection projects, with a focus on projects of high interest for Romania, namely Rail2Sea ​​and Via Carpatia. From Bucharests standpoint, these projects are essential for the Initiative to really bring about long-term economic development, and to make the economy of the participating states more strategically resilient, also in the context of post-pandemic economic recovery efforts. Alongside the leaders of the Initiative countries, this years summit will be attended by representatives of the US, Germany, the European Commission and the IMF, as partners, and by Greece’s representatives as guests. The initiative is meant to develop the economies of the participating states by boosting digital interconnectivity in transport and energy fields, by increasing real convergence between EU member states and also by strengthening the transatlantic relationship, including by stimulating the US economic presence in the region. We recall that Bucharest hosted the Three Seas Initiative summit in September 2018.

Football ▪ England and Italy will play in the final of the European Football Championship to take place on Sunday. On Wednesday evening, in the second semifinal, England defeated Denmark 2-1 after extra time. Previously Italy had outclassed Spain 4-2 after the penalty shoot-out, after a 1-all score in 120 minutes. Both semifinals and the finals have been scheduled in London. Bucharest hosted four games from the final tournament, three in the groups’ stage and one in the Round of 16. After a mediocre run in the preliminaries, Romania failed to qualify for the EURO. In exchange, Romanias Under-23 team has qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. Romania is playing in Group B and will face Honduras on July 22, South Korea on July 25 and New Zealand on July 28. The Romanian footballers have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics after having reached the semifinals of the European Under-21 Championship in 2019, hosted by Italy and San Marino. Romania has not participated in the Olympic football tournament since 1964, when it ranked 5th also in Tokyo. Before 1964, Romania had participated only in the European Championships of Paris in 1924 and of Helsinki in 1952. (LS)