October 5, 2021
Government in Bucharest dismissed, Number of COVID cases on the rise
Newsroom, 05.10.2021, 13:55
Covid — The Romanian authorities have decided to activate, today, the EU Civil Protection Mechanism in order to purchase Tocilizumab, medication used to treat COVID-19. The head of the Department for Emergency Situations, Raed Arafat, explained that the decision was made given that in two or three weeks’ time there could emerge problems related to Tocilizumab stocks in Romanian hospitals. He added that they were also considering asking for certain equipment, especially individual medical oxygenators. More than 8,000 new SARS-CoV-2 cases were registered on Monday in Romania, out of over 32,000 tests. During the same period, 133 Covid-related deaths were reported. At least 14,000 people infected with SARS-CoV-2 are hospitalized in specialized health facilities, and almost 1,500 patients are in ICUs. The Covid incidence rate, cumulated in 14 days, is higher than or equal to 3 per thousand inhabitants in almost 190 cities and about 990 communes. On the other hand, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has approved the administration of the third dose of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine to people over 18, pointing out that protection against COVID-19 may decrease in time, after the first two doses. In Romania, the third dose started being administered last week.
Motion – The minority government in Buchararest made up of the National Liberal Party — PNL and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania — UDMR headed by the Liberal Florin Citu has been dismissed today through a no confidence motion. The motion was initiated by the Social Democratic opposition and voted by Save Romania Union – USR (center-right), a former governing partner and the Alliance for the Union of Romanians – AUR. 281 parliamentarians voted for the departure of the Citu government, the minimum number required being 234. Before the vote, the prime minister, who is also the Liberal Party leader, announced that the Liberal officials would participate in the plenary debates, but would not vote.
Visit — The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, participates, as of today, in Brdo, Slovenia, in the two-day informal meeting of the European Council and in the EU – Western Balkans Summit. According to the Romanian Presidential Administration, high on the agenda of the European Council meeting is the EU’s role at global level. The situation in Afghanistan, the security agreement between the US, Great Britain and Australia, as well as the relations with China will also be addressed. The EU-Western Balkans Summit will discuss issues related to reaffirming the European perspective for the countries in the region, to cooperation with these countries so as to manage the socio-economic effects of the pandemic, as well as to strengthening dialogue and cooperation in the political and security domains.
Investigation — Countries and political leaders have rejected recent revelations by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists according to which hundreds of officials and people in their entourage have hid billions of dollars through offshore companies, mainly for tax evasion. Published on Sunday, this investigation, in which about 600 journalists have been involved, is entitled Pandora Papers and is based on about 12 million documents that have brought to light over 29,000 offshore companies. Among the officials targeted are: King Abdullah II of Jordan, people close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Czech PM Andrej Babis, the Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso, and also Colombian singer Shakira and the German model Claudia Schiffer. In most countries, these acts are not considered criminal, but, in the case of political leaders, journalists also talk about the contrast between their anti-corruption discourse and their money placements in tax havens. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists includes professionals from over 100 countries and territories.
Facebook — The social networking platform Facebook and its WhatsApp and Instagram services are functional again, after, on Monday, they went out of order for several hours thus being unavailable for billions of users around the world. According to Facebook, the interruption was caused by a faulty modification of its servers. Analysts noted that the incident occurred in the context in which an internal integrity alerter stated that Facebook always gave priority to benefits over safety. Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager who initially published numerous company documents on condition of anonymity, revealed her identity and is to testify in the US Senate in an internet protection investigation. She says the choices made by the Silicon Valley giants leadership represent a huge problem for children, for public safety and democracy.
Statistics – Last year Romanians earned, on average, a gross salary of about 5,100 lei (about 1,030 Euros), registered at the level of the national economy in 2020, the National Institute of Statistics shows. This is an increase of 7.4% as against the previous year. The net salary was 3,217 lei (about 650 Euros), higher by 7.7%. The most profitable sectors are IT&C, financial brokerage and insurances, Public Administration and the production and supply of electricity. At the opposite pole are the hotels and restaurants, agriculture, forestry, fisheries and real estate. (LS)
