August 22, 2020

A news roundup

Newsroom, 22.08.2020, 14:13

Corona Ro — 1,189 new cases of infection with SARS-CoV2 have been reported in Romania as compared to the latest report published, following tests conducted at national level, the Strategic Communication Group informed on Saturday. More than 77,500 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Romania so far and more than 35,000 patients have recovered. The total death toll stands at 3,233. As to the Romanian citizens from abroad, over 5,900 have been confirmed with COVID-19 and 124 have died. In another development, the Romanian Foreign Ministry announced that the Romanians transiting Serbia in less than 12 hours are no longer obliged to produce a COVID-19 test. The decision made by the Serbian authorities also applies to the citizens coming from Bulgaria, Croatia and Northern Macedonia. Also excepted from the obligation to produce a negative COVID-19 test are cross-border workers who hold documents attesting to their activity and transporters whose final destination is Serbia or who take over merchandise from that state.

Corona world — Over 23.1 million cases of coronavirus infection have been confirmed around the world, according to worldometers.info, with almost 800 thousand deaths reported. A quarter of the total number of cases, that is more than 5.6 million, have been reported in the US where the death toll reached almost 175,000, show data provided by the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine. The hardest hit country in Latin America is Brazil followed by Peru, Mexico and Columbia. The worst situation in Asia is reported in India with almost 2.9 million cases of contamination and 55 thousand deaths. In Europe there are fears of a second wave of the pandemic. Spain has registered for several days in a row more than 3 thousand new cases and the authorities have urged the population in the affected areas to stay at home. The World Health Organization says the pandemic should come to an end in less than two years because countries hold the technology allowing them to find efficient treatments.

PSD — The Social Democratic Party, the main opposition party in Romania holding a majority in Parliament, is today electing its leadership as part of an extraordinary congress. Running for president of the party are the interim leader Marcel Ciolacu and the former finance minister Eugen Teodorovici. The congress takes place online for the first time due the COVID-19 pandemic. The PSD extraordinary congress has today adopted changes and additions to the party statute. One of the main changes refers to the name of the National Executive Committee which will be replaced by the National Political Council. Another change stipulates that the president of the PSD National Council is elected by the congress to the leadership team proposed by a motion. Also the president will preside at the Council meetings and will coordinate the activity of departments, forums, leagues and associations set up within the party at national level.

Tennis — The pair made up of the Romanian Horia Tecau and the Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer are today playing against the French pair Jeremy Chardy/Fabrice Martin in the first round of the ATP Masters 1000 doubles tournament in Cincinnati which offers total prizes worth more than 4.2 million dollars. The tournament is hosted this year by Flushing Meadows Corona-Park in New York. Tecau and Rojer last year lost in the first round of the Cincinnati tournament to the pair Feliciano Lopez (Spain)/Andy Murray (Great Britain). The Romanian – Dutch pair won a final in Cincinnati in 2016 when they defeated the pair Ivan Dodig (Croatia)/Marcelo Melo (Brazil) 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 10-6. Tecau got a title in Cincinnati in 2012 alongside the Swedish player Robert Lindstedt.

Agriculture — The Romanian agriculture minister Adrian Oros has estimated that this year Romania will have enough wheat for bread production even if the output is going to be smaller by 35-40% because of the drought. Also, almost 2.5 million tons of wheat will be available for export. Statistical data shows that in the first 5 months of 2020 Romania exported one third more cereals than in the same period of last year. (tr. L. Simion)