February 22, 2022

A roundup of domestic and inter

Newsroom, 22.02.2022, 13:55

COVID-19 – The Omicron variant
of COVID-19 is becoming dominant in Romania. Over 95% of sequence testing revealed
the Omicron strain, Health Minister Alexandru Rafila has said. The Romanian
official believes the infection rate might go down at national level in three
weeks, with the daily number of infections measured in the hundreds instead of
thousands right now. Minister Rafila expressed hope the Easter Holidays will be
celebrated without restrictions. The first restriction to be lifted will be the
wearing of face masks in open spaces. The Health Minister warned, however, that
the number of hospitalizations must be reduced significantly before any
restrictions are eased. As regards the number of ICU patients, the target is
for the bed occupation rate to go down below 50%. According to Tuesday’s
report, 14,775 new COVID-19 infections were reported within the space of 24
hours, as well as 215 related fatalities, of which 8 were prior to the
reference period.

ROMANIA AND UKRAINE – Romania’s
president, Klaus Iohannis, has condemned the blatant violation of international
law after Russia decided to recognize the independence of the separatist
republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in Eastern Ukraine, arguing the decision must
be met with a harsh response from the international community. In turn, the
Government in Bucharest condemned any attempt at undermining the territorial
integrity of Ukraine, highlighting that the subversion of a UN member’s statehood
is a revisionist approach to history threatening peace in Europe and beyond.
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă said Romania is capable of receiving a large
number of refugees from Ukraine, arguing there are no repatriation requests
from any of the approximately 400,000 Romanians living in Ukraine. Russia’s
move was also criticized by political leaders in Bucharest. The Romanian
Foreign Ministry has raised the alert level to high, urging Romanians to leave
the country immediately in the wake of the deterioration of the security
climate in this country and in the Black Sea region.

UKRAINE
– Earlier today, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, criticized the
violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity after Moscow
decided to formally recognize the two separatist republics of Donetsk and
Luhansk on Monday. On the other hand, president Zelensky said he expects firm
and effective support from its Western allies against Russia. The UN Security
Council convened in an emergency meeting last night as the international
community started to react to Putin’s decision. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz,
US president Joe Biden and France’s president Emmanuel Macron last night agreed
that Russia has clearly violated the Minsk protocol. The United States, the
United Kingdom and Western allies have today announced new sanctions against
Moscow, while Russia’s representative to the UN warned Western nations to think
twice, to set emotions to one side, and not to make the situation worse.

INTELLIGENCE – The head of the
Romanian Intelligence Service, Eduard Hellvig, is today invited to attend a
joint Parliament committee meeting to discuss the activity of the Intelligence
Service and to brief MPs over the security developments in the extended Black
Sea region and on NATO’s eastern flank. According to a press release, the
Committee will also be briefed concerning the latest security developments on
the Ukrainian border and other topics of interest to Romania.

UNEMPLOYMENT – Unemployment
slightly went down nationwide from 2.68% at the end of January, by 0.01%
compared to the previous month and by 0.66% compared to January, 2021.
According to a press release issued by the National Employment Agency, the
total number of unemployed in Romania stood at some 234 thousand people at the
end of January, of whom most are from rural areas, are aged 40-49 and have
secondary education studies.

TENNIS – Romanian tennis
player Jaqueline Cristian advanced to the second round at the WTA 1000
tournament in Doha, Qatar, after ousting 11th-seed Elena Rybakina of
Kazakhstan in straight sets. Cristian is the only Romanian left in the women’s
singles, and will today go up against Daria Kasatkina of Russia (WTA 28), who
in the previous round knocked out Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia. Simona Halep,
Irina Begu and Sorana Cîrstea were eliminated in the first round on Monday.
(VP)