December 2, 2020 UPDATE

A news update

Newsroom, 02.12.2020, 20:46

Covid-19 Ro — The anti-COVID-19 vaccination strategy in Romania will be adopted on Thursday by the country’s Supreme Defense Council headed by President Klaus Iohannis as part of a videoconference. The strategy was approved on Friday by the government and provides for the vaccination, in a first stage, of the health care personnel, the staff of residential, medical and social centers and the vulnerable people. The second stage will include the entire population of Romania. In another move, the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday said that later this week the enclosed agri-food markets will be reopened given the drop in the number of new COVID-19 cases in Romania in the past weeks. The enclosed markets had been shut down in early November in a bid to limit the spread of the new coronavirus. According to the latest report published by the National Public Health Institute, the spread rate of the new coronavirus in Romania has dropped last week by almost 10% as against the previous week. Another 4,916 new cases of contamination were reported on Wednesday and 135 deaths from COVID-19. A record number of patients 1,260 is now in ICUs. Since the onset of the pandemic, the total number of cases at national level has exceeded 484 thousand, with 11,665 deaths reported. The authorities are urging the population to continue to strictly observe the health protection rules.

NATO – The Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu participated on Wednesday, the last day of a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting, in two working sessions, shows a communiqué of the Romanian Foreign Ministry. Bogdan Aurescu highlighted the deterioration of the security situation in the region, caused by an increased Russian military presence and the intensification of hybrid actions. He underlined that implementing the measures meant to consolidate NATO’s deterrence and defense posture in the Black Sea region should continue. In this sense he highlighted the strategic importance of the Black Sea for the euro-Atlantic security and drew attention to the need to boost the coherence of the Eastern Flank. In the other working session talks focused on the consequences of China’s increased role at international level, including in directly relevant domains for NATO and the member states. In the first working session on Tuesday, minister Aurescu pleaded for the consolidation of NATO’s role by reasserting the central role of the transatlantic relation based on the principles of allied cohesion, unity and solidarity as well as for revitalizing partnerships from the perspective of continuing the Alliance’s open doors policy.

Statistics — In 2018 Romania allotted for health only 580 Euros per capita, the smallest amount reported among EU member states, show data published on Wednesday by Eurostat. At the other end are Denmark and Luxembourg with more than 5,200 Euros per capita. The average amount at community level is almost 3 thousand Euros per capita. Within the EU, expenses allocated for health accounted for 9.9% of the GDP in 2018. Of the EU states, Germany and France reported the highest percentage of health expenses, namely over 11% and Sweden 10.9%. In this respect Romania is also at the bottom of the classification, its heath expenses accounting for 5.6% of the GDP. Only Luxembourg reported a lower percentage than Romania, namely 5.3% of the GDP.

Funds — Romania has attracted 2.5 billion Euros from external capital markets at attractive costs, the Public Finance Ministry announced on Wednesday. According to a Finance Ministry communiqué, the Eurobonds issued on November 24, 2020 by the Finance Ministry enjoyed a great interest from investors, which reconfirms Romania’s status as an important bond issuer in Central and Eastern Europe. The funds of this transaction were received on Wednesday. (tr. L Simion)