24 July, 2020

Romania sees new record number of new coronavirus cases/ Former anti-corruption prosecutor arrested for abuse of office./ Alert for unstable weather issued for weekend.

Newsroom, 24.07.2020, 13:55

Coronavirus Romania. Hospital beds and staffing are
the main focus of concern for the Romanian authorities, amid a sharp increase in the
number of new coronavirus cases. Romania is approaching 42,400 cases, with a
new daily record of 1,119 new infections. Almost 6,000 people are in hospital
with coronavirus, almost 301 in intensive care. 24 new deaths were also
reported, taking the death toll to 2,150. In another move, the government
approved yesterday new social protection measures for the staff of companies
hit by the coronavirus crisis. The healthy employees of the companies closed
down by the public health authorities will be on furlough by the end of the
year. An official statement says financial support is needed to prevent job
loss, more social exclusion and wider social and economic gaps between the
people whose jobs were directly affected by the epidemic and the rest of the
population.

Coronavirus world. Coronavirus cases are
on the rise around the world. More and more governments are considering
reintroducing restrictions. At least 15.6 million cases have been confirmed
globally, while the death toll passed 630,000. The United States, who recorded
the first coronavirus death at the beginning of February, has 4 million cases,
most of them in California, Texas and Florida. Europe has also seen a rise in
the number of new cases. Spain is making efforts to isolate the outbreaks that
have appeared since lockdown was lifted a month ago. New outbreaks have also
been reported in Italy, in Lombardy and the Lazio area where Rome is located.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia have also seen
new cases. The UK, with 45,000 deaths, Italy, with 35,000, France with 30,000
and Spain with 28,000 are the worst hit countries in Europe.

Corruption. The former anti-corruption prosecutor
Mircea Negulescu was arrested for thirty days on Thursday following a
ruling to this effect by the Supreme Court. He was working for the Ploiesti
branch of the National Anticorruption Directorate. Last year, Negulescu was
expelled from magistracy as a disciplinary measure following a number of
scandals linked to controversial cases. He is now accused of abuse of office,
unfair repression and forgery for making up evidence in two cases, including
the so-called Tony Blair case, in which the former Social Democratic prime
minister Victor Ponta was accused of organising a visit by the former British
prime minister to Romania to score electoral points in the 2012 elections.

Border police. The border police was on the front line
of the authorities’ efforts to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus, said
prime minister Ludovic Orban in a statement made on Friday on the anniversary
of the Romanian Border Police Day. He added that the work of the border police,
which he described as very complex and demanding, involves constant
training, professionalism, courage, moral integrity and a huge sense of
responsibility with respect to citizens and their country. Orban congratulated
the border police for the exemplary way in which they mobilised to secure
Romania’s land, sea, river and air borders in the context of the current health
crisis, at the standards required of a EU member state and an aspiring Schengen
area country.

Helicopters. Ten Americal Black Hawk helicopters are
arriving today in Romania at the military base in Mihail Kogălniceanu, in the
south-east of the country, on a mission as part of the Atlantic Resolve
operation. The aircraft are from the 101st Aviation Brigade, the US
army’s most decorated unit of its kind. The Atlantic Resolve operation involves
regular rotational deployment of US troops to Europe aimed at enhancing
interoperability between NATO member states and improving links between allied
and partner troops by means of cross-border training.

Photography. Four works by the Romanian photographer Felicia Simion are
on display as part of the Visage(s) d’Europe exhibition held by the Paris branch
of the Network of European
Union National Institutes for Culture, EUNIC. The exhibitions, which is in its second year, brings together artists from 13 countries. Simion’s photographs are from a collection entitled Ethnography, which captures rural practices and customs in contemporary Romania amid the depopulation of villages and migration.

Weather. The weather remains unstable in Romania, with
the weather service issuing two yellow-code alerts. One is for Friday and
refers to the centre, south-west and areas in the north, where torrential
rains, storms and even hail are expected. An alert has also been issued for
Saturday and Sunday in the western half of the country and the neighbouring
counties, where highly unstable weather is also expected, with heavy rain and
storms. Temperatures will remain, however, high, with the humidity and heat
ratio hitting the critical level 80. The high of the day are between 24 and 34
degrees Celsius, with 26 degrees in the capital Bucharest at noon. (CM)