July 18, 2020
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 18.07.2020, 13:50
Covid-19. In Romania, the number of infections with the new coronavirus has exceeded 36,600, according to the latest data announced by the Strategic Communication Group. 889 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours. Also, 21 more people died, the total number of deaths in the context of the coronavirus epidemic thus reaching 2009. Out of those who tested positive, more than 22,400 have been declared cured and discharged. Abroad, 5,212 Romanians were confirmed to be infected with the new coronavirus, and 122 died. Doctors say that one of the causes of the explosion in the number of cases is the discharge of positive patients on demand. Prime Minister Ludovic Orban has stated today that he does not wish to impose measures that would impact the economy in a negative way, but that depends on how the rules are observed.
Pandemic. More than 14,200,000 people have been infected with the new coronavirus in the world since the beginning of the pandemic and almost 600,000 have died. According to worldometers.info, more than 8.4 million people have healed so far. The United States recorded, for the third day in a row, a record number of new cases of COVID-19 in 24 hours, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The more than 77,600 new contaminations reviewed in one day bring the number of cases of infection in the country, since the beginning of the pandemic, to about 3.64 million. For several weeks now, the United States has been facing an explosion in the number of infections in the south and west of the country, by far the most affected in the world. In the face of rising contamination and the threat of a second wave, several European countries continue to tighten sanitation and quarantine conditions. In France, where several outbreaks have reappeared in recent days, wearing a mask will become mandatory next week in all enclosed spaces reserved for the public. In Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison postponed the opening of parliament by a few weeks, given that the new coronavirus continues to spread in the most densely populated cities in the country.
Quarantine law. Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has today promulgated the Law on the establishment of measures in the field of public health in situations of epidemiological and biological risk. On Thursday, the Bucharest Senate, the decision-making body on this matter, adopted the law on quarantine and isolation. In six days of debates, numerous changes were made to the bill initiated by the Government. Earlier, in the Chamber of Deputies, the document, harshly criticized by specialists, opposition and NGOs, had been changed. In the form in which it was definitively voted, the law stipulates, among other things, that the quarantine measure is established on the basis of official scientific statements and case definition, at the persons home, at a location declared by them or in a space designated by the authorities.
European Council. European leaders continue talks in Brussels today on the future multiannual budget and the controversial financial economic recovery package after the pandemic. This is the first time in five months that the heads of state and government of the Union have met face to face. Fridays talks were described as constructive, but the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark and Sweden have reservations about the non-reimbursable amounts that would be received by the worst-affected countries, without being asked for a program of reforms through the relaunch fund proposed by France and Germany. Present at the summit, the head of the Romanian state, Klaus Iohannis, believes that Bucharest can receive a substantial amount, but admits that opinions are divided and negotiations are complicated. He supports Romanias major objective in terms of the future budget of the union, namely to obtain the most important allocations for the common agricultural policy and for the cohesion one. Regarding the economic recovery plan, Klaus Iohannis advocates the option of a higher share of grants compared to loans in the total amounts allocated and as a long a period as possible for the implementation of the new recovery tool, so that the amounts can be fully and effectively absorbed.
Laser. Professor Gerard Mourou, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2018 and the initiator of the ELI (Extreme Light Infrastructure) project, came to Romania, where he visited, the ELI Center in Măgurele (near Bucharest). Professor Mourou particularly appreciated the remarkable progress in the implementation of the project, emphasizing the uniqueness, technological and scientific advancement of the infrastructure made at the international research platform in the field of lasers. He discussed with researchers there the launch of “experiments related to the use of high-power laser systems in the development of new nuclear technologies for energy production with minimal environmental pollution.” We recall that, in March 2019, the laser in Magurele registered a first in world research: it reached 10 PW, the power for which it was built, being the most powerful laser in the world. (M. Ignatescu)
