July 18, 2020 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 18.07.2020, 19:20

Covid-19. In Romania, the
number of infections with the new coronavirus has exceeded 36,600, according to
the latest data made public by the Strategic Communication Group. 889 new cases
in 24 hours were reported on Saturday. Also, 21 more people died, raising the
pandemic death toll to 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 stated on Saturday that he did
not wish to impose measures that would impact the economy in a negative way,
but that depended on how the rules were observed. In turn, the health minister
Nelu Tataru said that authorities were not considering delaying the start of
the school year or the local elections due in September. He also rejected the
idea of a new state of emergency due to the rise in the number of Covid-19
cases.

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 reported, 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 a surge spike
in the number of infections in the south and west of the country. Despite that,
president Donald Trump has promised to not force the Americans wear masks,
saying that people must enjoy a certain freedom. His statements contradicts the
recommendations made by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US’s chief epidemiologist, who
called on central and local government to be firm and have people wear masks. 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 on Saturday 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, the 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 person’s home, at a location declared by
them or in a space designated by the authorities.

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)