November 29, 2021

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Newsroom, 29.11.2021, 13:55

COVID-19 Romanian authorities announced today 1,096 new
COVID-19 cases for the last 24 hours, some 450 cases
less than a week ago. Another 107 Covid-related fatalities have also been
reported, 15 of them from a previous date. Meanwhile, in the capital Bucharest
the infection rate dropped to 1.95 cases per thousand. A Tarom airliner
is scheduled to repatriate the 36 Romanian nationals stranded in South Africa,
after flights to and from that country were suspended in an attempt to prevent
the spread of the new
coronavirus variant Omicron.

HOLIDAY As
of this past weekend Romanians are enjoying a short holiday. With Tuesday,
November 30th and Wednesday, December 1 official bank holidays, the
government decided to make Monday a non-working day as well. Many Romanians
chose to spend these days off in mountain or spa resorts, but city breaks in
historical locations were also popular choices. On Tuesday, November 30,
Orthodox Romanians celebrate St. Andrew, the patron saint of Romania. He spread
the word of God in today’s Dobrogea, on the Black Sea coast. More than 900,000
Romanians are named after him. On Wednesday, December 1, on Romania’s National
Day, military parades and ceremonies will be held across the country, including
in the capital Bucharest. Because of the pandemic, however, these events will be
low-key. In many Romanian cities holiday street lights will be turned on that
evening and Christmas fairs will be opened.

HANUKKAH The Hanukkah tradition reinforces faith and hope among the
members of the Jewish community, said the president of Romania Klaus Iohannis, in
a message occasioned by this holiday. The Romanian official also mentioned in
this context Romania’s commitment to preventing and fighting anti-Semitism. In
turn, the PM Nicolae Ciucă and the Chamber of Deputies speaker Marcel Ciolacu
took part on Sunday night at the National Opera House in Bucharest in a
ceremony in which the first Hanukkah candle was lit. The 2 officials also
mention that Israel is an important ally for Romania. The Festival of Lights, as the Hanukkah is also
known, lasts for 8 days and commemorates the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent
rededication of the Second Temple following a historic battle for the Jewish
people in the 2nd century BCE.

MIGRANTS The president of the European Commission,
Ursula von der Leyen, and the NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg,
promised to strengthen cooperation against the hybrid threats coming from
Belarus and Rusia. The 2 officials Sunday made a joint visit to Lithuania and
Latvia, which alongside Poland are facing an inflow of illegal migrants. Ursula
Von der Leyen and Jens Stoltenberg accused Minsk of orchestrating the migrant
crisis, viewed as a hybrid threat against the EU, but Belarus dismissed the
accusations. The visit of the 2 officials comes ahead of a meeting of NATO
foreign ministers on Tuesday and Wednesday in Latvia. Also attending will be
the US secretary of state Antony Blinken. The participants in the meeting are
expected to voice concerns over the Russian military build-up near the
Ukrainian border.

OMICRON World Health Organisation member states are
analysing for the next 3 days a global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The
WHO has warned today that the new variant, Omicron, poses
a very high global risk of infection surges, but has also emphasised that many uncertainties still
exist with respect to the dangers and the transmission rate of this variant. G7
health ministers are taking part in an online conference on the Omicron
variant, first identified in South Africa. Omicron has been found in other
parts of the world, including the Netherlands, Denmark and Australia’. Several
countries have already suspended flights to and from countries in the south of
Africa, in an effort to prevent the variant from spreading. (tr. A.M. Popescu)