April 21, 2020
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 21.04.2020, 13:55
Covid-19 Romania — So far 482 people have died of coronavirus infection in Romania, and the number of Covid-19 infections has exceeded 9,200, the Strategic Communication Group informs. According to the authorities, 2,153 people have been declared recovered and have been discharged from hospital. Outside Romania, another Romanian infected with the new coronavirus has died in Belgium, taking the death toll of Romanian victims abroad to 62. According to the Strategic Communication Group, 947 Romanian citizens from abroad have been confirmed with coronavirus infection, most of them in Italy, 633. In another development, the Romanian authorities say they are not yet considering relaxing restrictions over the pandemic because of sanitary security. In the analysis the authorities are going to make, they will take into account the recommendations of the EC while trying to coordinate their actions with those of the other EU states. The Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has today summoned a meeting with the PM, part of the government ministers and the head of the Department for Emergency Situations, Raed Arafat, to assess the measures needed for managing the current sanitary crisis. In a Facebook post, referring to the recently ended Easter break, the interior minister Marcel Vela thanked the Romanian citizens for having observed the authorities’ decision meant to fight the spread of the coronavirus infection. At the same time, scores of people have been taken into temporary custody or fined over the past days for having violated the military decree provisions or for violent acts.
Covid-19 world — The coronaviurs pandemic across the world has so far caused 2.5 million infections and more than 170 thousand deaths. The US is the hardest hit country with almost 800 thousand cases and more than 42 thousand deaths. Europe reports half of the total number of contaminations the world over and more than 60% of deaths. Spain, Italy, Germany, France and the UK remain the most affected European countries. The number of daily contaminated persons has dropped though in Italy, which has two regions where no new cases of infection have been reported of late. In Spain, the number of deaths caused by Covid-19 in the past 24 hours has dropped, being the smallest percentage of the past month. Several European states, among which Germany, have started the week with a relaxation of restrictions, while continuing to call for caution, isolation and social distancing.
Dacia Mioveni — The Dacia Mioveni Factory in southern Romania, which belongs to the Renault group, has resumed progressive car production as of today. As of May 4 they will resume work at full capacity. The company announced that for the period when the activity was suspended, they defined and applied measures to protect the employees against the new coronavirus, and that they would inform employees on the need to observe these measures. Dacia factory in Mioveni stopped working in mid March when the employees were furloughed due to the coronaviurs pandemic. In another development, the American car maker Ford informed that most of its employees from the factory in Craiova (southern Romania) will remain furloughed by April 30.
Oil price — Romania will not be affected, on short term, by the drastic drop in the oil price reported in the US, given that the country consumes a lot of oil from its domestic production – says the Romanian economy minister Virgil Popescu. The price of the American oil collapsed on Monday, dropping under 10 dollars per barrel, thus breaking a new negative record, due to the ever decreasing demand against the backdrop of the coronaviurs pandemic, according to the CNN. While production dropped by 10%, demand decreased by 30% at world level, shows a Reuters analysis. (tr. L. Simion)
