November 6, 2021 UPDATE

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 06.11.2021, 19:20

SPORT
Romanian swimmer David
Popovici won gold in the 200 meter freestyle race of the European Short Course
Swimming Championships underway in Kazan, Russia. This has been the third medal
for Romania after silver and bronze won by Robert Glinta in the 100 meter and
50 meter backstroke race. In another development, Romanian tennis player Horia
Tecau and his German partner Kevin Krawietz have qualified for Nitto ATP Finals
in Turin over November 14th and 21st a competition, which
is the year-end climax to the ATP Tour season
and features only the world’s best eight qualified singles players and doubles
teams. Tecau and Krawietz, who are presently ranking 7th in the ATP
Doubles Race, have booked tickets for Turin after the results they obtained at
Paris Masters. The tournament in Turin would be Tecau’s seventh participation
in the Nitto ATP Finals.

COVID-19 Authorities in Romania on Saturday announced over 8
thousand new Covid -19 infections. 490 new fatalities have also been reported
bringing the death toll since the beginning of the pandemic to 50 thousand. Romania
continues to get international assistance in its efforts to keep the pandemic
at bay. Another four patients in severe conditions are to be transported for
treatment to hospitals in the Czech Republic and Denmark and a medical team of
experts is to arrive in Romania from Israel to help the local physicians in
their efforts to fight the pandemic. The head of Romania’s Department for
Emergency Situations, Raed Arafat, says that although the number of infections
is on a downward trend, hospitals will remain overcrowded for another couple of
weeks and the number of fatalities remains higher. Arafat has also said that
vaccination remains the main form of protection. After being on an upward trend
for a couple of weeks, the country’s vaccine rollout has slowed down of late.
Since Romania’s vaccine rollout kicked off in late December last year, the
number of Romanians fully vaccinated has reached nearly 6.5 million. The man in
charge of the country’s vaccine rollout, physician Valeriu Gheorghita, urged
people to not let themselves be fooled by individuals who came out of nowhere and
are spreading fake news underlining the most effective way in the fight against
the pandemic remains vaccination. Gheorghita participated in an online Q&A
marathon together with other doctors and experts.

SCHOOL Roughly 1,800,000 students and preschoolers are to commence
courses on Monday, less than two thirds out of the total number, after a
two-week holidays. The rest are to resume online courses, under a joint
decision by the Ministries of Education and Health in Romania, which provides
that students can resume courses in person only in those schools with at least
60% of their teaching staff vaccinated. The Students Council believes the
measure is not enough for the safe resumption of physical schooling though and
has called on the medical authorities to develop an algorithm upon which
schools may decide the format of courses they provide considering other factors
besides the staff vaccination, like the local infection rate, test capabilities
in certain regions and the conditions for keeping social distancing and
implementing prevention measures. Education Minister Sorin Campeanu has
announced the purchase and the future distribution to schools of 9 million
tests. 30% of the students over 12 have so far been vaccinated.

TALKS Romania’s Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu is going to have a
round of talks with the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington on
Monday during the visit he is paying to the USA over November 8th
and 9th upon the invitation of his US counterpart. The visit marks
the official opening of the 7th meeting part of the US-Romania
strategic dialogue for the 21st century. The Talks between the two
officials are to be focusing on identifying concrete ways of developing and
deepening bilateral cooperation in several fields such as politics, security,
military, energy and economic cooperation.

(bill)