August 2, 2020

President Klaus Iohannis issues message on European Holocaust Memorial Day./ Romania tops 53,000 coronavirus cases.

Newsroom, 02.08.2020, 14:07

Roma Holocaust. President Klaus Iohannis issued a message on European
Roma Holocaust Memorial Day. He said Romania may be considered a model for
other countries in the region for how it accepted responsibility for the
Holocaust and for its efforts to combat anti-Semitism. We must keep alive the
memory of the victims and consolidate efforts to combat anti-Semitism,
xenophobia and Holocaust denial, the president also said. The foreign ministry
has also published a statement. Keeping silent for many decades about the
suffering of the European Roma in the Nazi concentration camps helped entrench
prejudice and discrimination against this community. The foreign ministry also
supports accepting shared responsibility to fight prejudice, discrimination and
extremist actions of an ethnic or racial nature. On 2nd August 1944,
approximately 3,000 Roma died at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Some 500,000 Roma were
killed during the whole of the Holocaust. In Romania, 25,000 Roma were deported
to Transnistria on orders from the Romanian dictator and Nazi ally Ion
Antonescu. Around 11,000 were killed.

Covid-19 Romania. 1,075 new daily coronavirus
cases were reported in Romania on Sunday. Five months since the first case was confirmed,
Romania now tops 53,000 infections, while the death toll is 2,413. More than
400 people are in intensive care. The authorities have introduced new
restrictions amid a constant surge in the number of new cases. In several
counties, wearing a face mask is now also compulsory outdoors. Depending on the
rate of infection in a given area, face masks are either compulsory in all
public spaces or only in the more crowded areas or between certain hours. For
the next two weeks beginning today, bars and gaming centres will have to close
earlier in Bucharest and seven other counties due to recent spikes in cases.
Also, several localities around the country are in lockdown. A number of states
said they would introduce or maintain restrictions for travellers from Romania.

Covid-19 world. The World Health
Organisation has warned that the pandemic is likely to be lengthy. Global cases
have passed 18 million and death toll has reached 689,000. The United States,
Brazil, India, Russia and South Africa have the largest number of cases, with
the US being the worst hit country in the world with over 4.7 million cases and
157,000 deaths. Struggling to restart their economies while keeping the
pandemic in check, governments are reintroducing partial restrictions. Sustained
efforts are being made in the meantime to develop a vaccine. The World Health
Organisation is worried about the evolution of the pandemic, emphasising the importance of
sustained community efforts to keep it under control.

Economy. The European Union is facing the biggest economic drop since
periodic assessments began in 1995, according to Eurostat, the bloc’s
statistical office. In the second quarter of the year, when most member states
were in lockdown, GDP dropped by more than 12% in the eurozone and by almost
12% across the Union compared with the previous quarter. According to Radio
Romania’s correspondent in Madrid, almost 100,000 Romanians living in Spain
have applied for unemployment benefits after losing their jobs. The figures for
Romania will become available in mid September, but according to the economy
minister Florin Citu, the numbers will be negative, although he says this will
be the only period with economic contraction this year. The US also saw its GDP
plunge by almost a third in the second quarter of the year, while Canada said
its economy grew by 4.5% in May compared with April.

Tennis. Three Romanian players, Sorana Cirstea, Irina Begu and
Patricia Tig are in the main draw in the women’s singles at the Palermo tennis
tournament which is getting under way on Monday. This is the first WTA competition
held since March. Another Romanian player, Simona Halep, world no. 2 in the
world, withdrew from Palermo amid the surge in the number of coronavirus cases.
In the first round, Cirstea faces Italy’s Sara Errani, Begu faces Germany’s Laura
Siegemund and TIg will play against the fourth seed, Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit.

Film festival. The 19th Transylvania
International Film Festival is under in Cluj Napoca, in north-western Romania.
The focus this year is on safety and social distancing, with the festival
taking place exclusively outdoors at several locations around the city. The
line-up features more than 130 titles. This year’s edition is dedicated to the
great Italian director Federico Fellini. Romanian actress Maria Ploae is to
receive a special recognition award. The festival is coming to an end next
Sunday.