August 30, 2021
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Newsroom, 30.08.2021, 14:07
COVID-19 Valeriu Gheorghita, the man in
charge of Romania’s vaccine rollout, has told a private TV channel that the
daily number of Covid infections in Romania is expected to go above 2,000 in
mid-September instead of the initial estimates of 15-16 hundred. Gheorghita
expects the situation to worsen because of the Delta variant, which is to
become dominant even in Romania. According to him, the high degree of mobility
and people interaction largely contributes to spreading the virus. 868 new
cases were reported by the authorities on Sunday after over 30 thousand tests
had been carried out, which means an infection rate of 2.8%. More than 2000
patients are being treated in hospitals, 269 in ICUs. 19 Covid-related
fatalities have been reported. In spite of these alarming figures, the interest
of the Romanians in getting the vaccine is still low, only 56 hundred people
got the jab yesterday. And since the rollout kicked off in late December last
year only 5.1 million Romanians have been fully vaccinated.
FIREFIGHTERS Romanian Prime Minister,
Florin Citu, on Monday congratulated the Romanian firefighters who joined the
international efforts aimed at putting out wildfires in Greece. According to a
post on the government’s Facebook page, firefighters from Romania did an
excellent job in Greece. We recall that Romania had deployed to Greece 142
firefighters, 8 fire engines, three tankers, a command center as well as
equipment and other elements of logistics. The 142 Romanian firefighters got
promoted on Monday upon a request by the Interior Minister Lucian Bode and the
head of the Department for Emergency Situations (DSU), Raed Arafat. They have
also been awarded the DSU Honorary Medal. This is the second squad of
firefighters from Romania to intervene in Greece. In early August Romania had
deployed 100 firefighters to Greece and 23 fire engines.
FESTIVAL On the third day of the
‘George Enescu’ Festival, music lovers are going to enjoy on the stage of the
Romanian athenaeum, the performances offered by the Baltic Sea Philharmonic, an
orchestra with artists from 10 countries in Northern Europe, such as Sweden,
Estonia, Denmark and Russia. Pianist Maria Joao Pires is performing pieces of
Mozart at the Athenaeum accompanied by the Baltic Sea Philharmonic. Under the baton
of conductor Kristjan Jarvi, music lovers will be delighted to listen to
Enescu’s second symphony in A major as well as to his own creation entitled
‘Aurora’. Tonight the Palace Hall in Bucharest will be hosting a concert given
by London Symphony Orchestra. Last night, this famous orchestra presented
Ondrej Adamek’s ‘Where are you’, a piece specially made for mezzo-soprano
Magdalena Kozena and the great conductor Sir. Simon Rattle. 32 orchestras from
14 countries are participating in this anniversary edition of the George Enescu
International Festival.
TENNIS 4 out of the 5 Romanians on the
US Open’s main board are having matches today. Romanian Simona Halep will be up
against Camila Giorgi of Italy while Irina Begu plays Andrea Petkovic of
Germany. Ana Bogdan, also from Romania, has been pitched against Rebeka
Masarova of Spain, while Gabriela Ruse, at her first participation in this
prestigious tennis event will be playing Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech
Republic. The fifth Romanian on the main draw, Sorana Carstea will be taking on
Veronika Kudermetova of Russia on Tuesday.
AGE On January 1st 2021
Romania’s resident population stood at 19.2 million people, 142 thousand less
than in the same period of 2020, data released by the National Institute for
Statistics shows. The main cause of this decrease is the negative birth rate as
the number of deceased exceeded the number of those born by over 120 thousand.
Urban population and women are main categories accounting for 53.6%, 51%
respectively of the total population. At a rate of 124 old persons against 100
youngsters below 15 years, the phenomenon of demographic aging is deepening in
Romania, the same data reveals.
(bill)
