February 17, 2021

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 17.02.2021, 13:55

CAMPAIGN According to the head of the National
Committee coordinating Romania’s vaccination operations, physician Valeriu
Gheorghita, only two months into the anti-Covid vaccination campaign, its
beneficial results are visible. According to official data, roughly 90% of the
eligible medical personnel have got the first dose and the booster, while 98%
of them got the first dose. Since the campaign kicked off on December 27th,
nearly 716 thousand people have been immunized. 1.2 million doses have been
used mostly produced by Pfizer/BioNTech giant, but also by Moderna and
AstraZeneca. In another development, since the onset of the pandemic, 766
thousand infections have been registered in Romania with a death toll over
19,500.

PROTESTS Trade unionists from the capital and other major Romanian cities are
mounting fresh protests in front of the government building in Bucharest.
Several trade union associations from police, public administration, social
assistance and finances are taking to the streets of Bucharest to protest the
austerity measures imposed by the ruling coalition, which they believe is going
to prolong the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. On Tuesday, hundreds of
policemen from Bucharest and other Romanian cities protested in front of the government
building. Employers and employees from Romania’s hospitality industry and the
country’s railway system have also protested the government’s austerity
measures.

BRANCUSI The Romanian Cultural Institute is these days staging in Bucharest,
Brussels, Chisinau, Lisbon, London, Madrid and Paris online events devoted to
the personality of Romania’s greatest sculptor Constantin Brancusi as we
celebrated his 145th birthday on 19th of February. A
special concert is to be given on his birthday with illustrations from his
works provided by Romania’s National Art Museum. A pioneer of modern abstract
sculpture with exquisite works in marble, bronze and wood often of traditional
inspiration, Brancusi is considered one of the main sculptors of the 20th
century.

NATO Defence Ministers from NATO countries are having online talks on
Wednesday and Thursday over the future of this alliance in Afghanistan, where
roughly 10 thousand of its servicemen have been deployed. NATO secretary
general Jens Stoltenberg is expected to ask for additional funds for various
joint defence and deterrence operations. According to him these funds will
enable the deployment of troops to the eastern flank, air police missions as
well as joint naval and military operations. Furthermore, the move is expected
to balance costs among the member countries, Stoltenberg went on to say. If the
proposals are rallying support from the ministers attending the event, they
could be adopted by the leaders of NATO countries during the summit this year.

MOTION Romanian MPs on Wednesday rejected the first simple motion this year in
which the opposition PSD was calling for the resignation of the country’s
Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu whom they blame for his inability to properly
handle the anti-Covid vaccination and testing campaign and take the right
measures to prevent fires in some medical units. Another party in opposition,
AUR, backed the motion, which was debated upon on Monday when Voiculescu
pointed out that the real author of the disaster in Romania’s healthcare system
in the past 30 years was the Social Democratic Party. According to regulations,
a simple motion against a minister even if passed, does not necessarily imply
his resignation.

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