December 4, 2021 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news...
Newsroom, 04.12.2021, 19:58
MEDAL — Romanian fencer Ana-Maria Popescu, an Olympic vice-champion in Tokyo, on Saturday won the silver medal at the MK Fencing Academy International Epee Cup 2021. She was defeated in the final by the Estonian Kristina Lehis, 15-14. Last week, the Romanian athlete received, for the fifth time, the World Cup Trophy during the International Fencing Federation Congress held in Lausanne.
COVID-19 — 1,490 new cases of coronavirus infection were reported on Saturday in Romania. More than 130 related deaths were also reported, of which 20 from a previous date. 948 patients are in intensive care. The infection rate in Bucharest has dropped to 1.47 per one thousand people. Authorities have announced they will increase the testing capacity, one of the options being free testing at the general practitioner’s office. As regards vaccination, a little over 7.4 million people have been fully vaccinated in Romania.
OMICRON — Countries across the world are taking measures to prevent the spread of Omicron, the new variant of Covid-19, which seems more contagious than the Delta variant. First identified in South Africa, Omicron has already been detected in 40 countries, prompting many of them to toughen border rules and local restrictions. Thus, Italy will ban the access of unvaccinated people to most public places, starting on Monday. The Italian Government says it does not consider mandatory vaccination for the time being, but wants to convince the undecided to get immunized. 73% of Italians are fully vaccinated while more than 6 million have not been immunized at all. France, where 12 cases of infection with Omicron have been confirmed, has toughened sanitary restrictions at borders, in an attempt to keep the 5th wave of the pandemic in check and prevent Omicron from spreading. Thus, all travellers from countries outside the EU, whether vaccinated or not, must provide upon entering France a negative test taken no sooner than 48 hours before while in the case of Russians and Britons, this negative test must be taken no sooner than 24 hours before entering the country.
LIST – In Bucharest, the National Committee for Emergencies updated the list of countries and territories with high coronavirus infection rates. Thus, France, Portugal, Mauritius and the Northern Mariana Islands entered the red zone. Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia and Belize have entered the orange zone after being out of the red one, while countries like Spain, Sweden and Vietnam, previously in the green zone, have entered the orange zone.
MIGRANTS — The Romanian border police detained 22 foreign citizens who were trying to illegally cross Romania’s border with Hungary, hidden in cars or on foot. Trying to get passed checkpoints in Nadlac II and Curtici were people from Afghanistan, Turkey, Iraq, Bangladesh and Syria.
SOCIAL – The number of disabled people in Romania stands at 861,000, of whom 98% are cared for by their families or live independently, while only 2% are institutionalised, according to the latest data released by the authorities. The capital Bucharest has the largest number of disabled people. Women account for more than half of the total number. PM Nicolae Ciuca said that a draft law on protection measures for people with mental disabilities will be discussed by the Government next week.
HANDBALL – Romania’s national handball team defeated Iran on Friday evening in their first match at the IHF Women’s World Championship held in Spain. Romania is part of Group C and will be up against Kazakhstan on December 5 and Norway on December 7. Romania has not missed any world championship. It won the title in 1962, silver medals in 1973 and 2005 and bronze in 2015. Romania ranked 12 at the previous edition of the World Championship held in Japan in 2019.
