November 19, 2021
Click here for a roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 19.11.2021, 13:55
GOVERNMENT The Social
Democrats and the Liberals are resuming negotiations today on the structure and
governing programme of the cabinet they intend to form jointly with the
Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians.Yesterday the 2 parties agreed to have a cabinet in
place by next Thursday. The National Liberal Party once again nominated the
interim defence minister Nicolae Ciucă for the PM post. In turn, the Social
Democrats nominated their president Marcel Ciolacu. He said the order in the
prime-minister rotation is yet to be decided, but the party that will have the
first PM designate will allow the other party to appoint the finance minister.
COVID-19 In the past 24 hours Romania saw 2,889 new COVID-19
cases and 281 related fatalities, 27 of
them from an earlier date. Intensive care units across the country
remain overcrowded, in spite of the drop in infection rates. In the capital city Bucharest the rate reached 4.34 per
thousand, as against the 16.54 per thousand peak reported on October 22. According
to official data nearly 89,000 people received COVID vaccines on Thursday, of
whom around 24,000 got the first dose. As of recently Romania has more than 7
million fully vaccinated citizens.
TRAVEL The National
Committee on Emergency Situations updated the list of countries and territories
by COVID-19 incidence rates. Germany, Greece, Hungary, Bulgaria and the UK are now red-list countries,
while France, Portugal, Monaco, Chile, Lebanon and Guyana were included in the
medium-risk category. The updated list comes into force on November 21, at
midnight.
TENNIS The Romanian tennis player Horia Tecău announced on
Thursday the end of his professional career at the age of 36. He has won 38
doubles tournaments, including the Wimbledon and the US Open, together with
Jean-Julien Rojer (Netherlands), and played another 24 finals. He also won the
silver in the Rio Olympics in 2016, teaming up with Florin Mergea (Romania), and
a mixed doubles final at the Australian Open, with Bethanie Mattek-Sands (US).
Horia Tecău’s last match will be for the Romanian team in the Davis Cup match
against Peru, at the end of November. (tr. A.M. Popescu)
