March 14, 2020
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Newsroom, 14.03.2020, 13:50
COVID 19 ROMANIA – In Romania, the number of people confirmed as being infected with the new coronavirus has reached 99, authorities have announced today. Some 2,300 people are in quarantine and more than 14,000 are self-isolated at home. The malls in Bucharest and another 14 cities in Romania have announced that their opening hours will be reduced, in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Eight Romanian citizens have been brought from Italy, the country most affected by COVID-19 in Europe, on board a plane of the Romanian Air Forces and placed under quarantine in Bucharest. Also today, the Romanian Defense Ministry has announced that several European countries have taken exceptional measures in order to curb the spread. They include, among other things, reintroducing border checks, suspending traffic across their territories or making it conditional on certain criteria, and even closing some border crossing points. According to the ministry, the measures have been taken by Romanias neighbors and those that have common borders with Italy. Romanias president Klaus Iohannis has promulgated the law on giving parents free days when schools are closed. So, one of the parents can stay at home if the child is aged up to 12, or to 18 if the child is disabled.
COVID 19 EUROPE – Europe has never been in such a dramatic situation since the end of WWII, said the European Parliament President David Sassoli after the announcement made by the European Commission with regard to measures to combat COVID-19. The main challenge is to save human lives, Sassoli said. Another important objective is to protect jobs, businesses and the economy, and for that austerity must be eliminated. The EU countries will have to spend as much as needed in order to support employees, free-lancers, businesses and banks. Besides the commitment of the member states, at least 37 billion Euros are ready and available in the EU budget, the EU official stressed. On Friday, the WHO declared that Europe was the new epicenter of the COVID 19 pandemic and announced that the 5 thousand fatality threshold had been exceeded. Spain declared state of emergency for two weeks. China has today announced 11 cases of contamination, but for the first time since the start of the pandemic, in people that have come from abroad. While in China the number of infections and deaths are approaching zero, in the US and Europe they are on the rise. Italy remains the most affected country in the world after China and also the European country most severly hit by the pandemic. On Friday, the US president Donald Trump declared a national emergency. The measure will allow the federal government to use a 50 billon dollar emergency relief fund for measures against COVID 19. As of yesterday, nobody whos traveled to the Schengen area in the past 14 days is allowed to enter the US. A growing number of countries are suspending their international flights.
ROMANIAN GOVERNMENT – Romanian PMs are today voting the investiture of the Government headed by the Liberal Ludovic Orban, but the procedure is special, against the background of the measures against COVID-19. The Orban Government needs 233 favorable votes in order to be endorsed. The 16 ministers proposed to form the 3rd Orban Cabinet have been heard today, via video-calls, and 7 of them have got negative opinions: those proposed for labor, education, health, justice, finance, environment and development. In the speech he gave earlier, the Prime Minister Designate Ludovic Orban has stated that Romania is crossing a difficult period of economic and social challenges, which require a fully-functional executive, in order to help the country get over the severe international crisis, triggered by the COVID 19 pandemic. On Friday, president Klaus Iohannis designated again as PM the leader of the National Liberal Party, after video consultations with parliamentary parties and groups. The decision was made as, on Thursday, the acting finance minister Florin Citu decided to step down as Prime Minister Designate, just before the investiture vote in parliament. We recall that the Liberal Government headed by Ludovic Orban was dismissed under a motion of no-confidence last month. Immediately after, the president designated Orban again to form the new government, but the latter had to withdraw, following a ruling of the Constitutional Court.
