January 28, 2021

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 28.01.2021, 14:07

PANDEMIC
Europe’s concern about
the novel strains of the Covid-19 virus is on the rise. The UK announced it can
resort to additional prevention measures, including the isolation of visitors in
hotels made available by the authorities. With six million, Britain boasts the highest
number of people immunized so far. Norway is expected to close its borders for
all visitors, with the exception of those essential, applying some of the
toughest prevention measures in Europe. The country, which is not an EU member,
has announced these restrictions after the discovery of an outbreak of the more
contagious strain initially identified in Britain. The government in Berlin is
considering the cancellation of almost all international flights in order to
prevent the spreading of the mutating virus. In Portugal, the government
decided to cancel all the flights towards Brazil starting this Friday, due to
the growing number of infections. The new strain, initially discovered in
Britain, has also been detected in other 70 countries, the WHO says. According
to worldmeters.info, over 101 million infections have been registered worldwide
so far and at least 2.1 million people have died.

CLIMATE US president Joe Biden on Wednesday said the US must lead the
world response to the climate crisis. Biden has signed a series of executive
orders designed to address climate change; they are aimed at freezing new oil
and gas leases on public lands and double off-shore wind produced energy by
2030. The new US president has appointed John Kerry as the special presidential
envoy for climate. Biden has announced an environment summit the US is going to
stage on Earth Day, April 22nd, which also coincides with the fifth
anniversary of the Paris Agreement, the USA rejoined shortly after he had taken
power. During the summit the USA is expected to announce fresh measures aimed
at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Biden also intends to present before the
Congress a 2 billion dollar climate package, which is expected to place
environmental measures at the centre of the US economy.

VACCINE Romania’s national vaccination campaign is in full swing, with over 570
thousand people immunized so far. Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu has announced
that certain centres, which immunized people from outside the eligible
categories, are to face sanctions. In turn Education Minister Sorin Cimpeanu
says that the personnel in the country’s Education system will benefit from a
special immunization line adding that the evolution of the infection rate is
decisive in the decision to bring students back to school again. Last week
Romania received only half of the doses requested and now has a deficit of 117
thousand. Over 29 hundred fresh infections were announced on Thursday. Since
the outbreak, 721 thousand people have got infected in Romania and more than 18
thousand died. About one thousand people are currently being treated in IC
units.

PROTEST Members of the Medical Solidarity Trade Union Federation have
taken to the streets of Bucharest today calling for protection measures for the
workers in Romania’s medical field after 93 professionals in this field have so
far died in the line of duty. Besides legal rights, other claims are focusing
on various forms of recognizing the efforts and sacrifices made by the medical
personnel. According to unionists, protests have also been caused by the
incumbent government’s refusal to participate in a social dialogue. Also on
Thursday, in Iasi, north-eastern Romania, trade unionists from the country’s
penitentiary system protested over wage freeze in the sector. Protesters have
called for the elimination of unequal pay in the public system, the
implementation of the pay law in state-owned institutions and a minimum wage
adjusted to the latest price hikes in consumer goods.

(bill)