October 13, 2021 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 13.10.2021, 23:57

TALKS Romania’s Prime Minister designate, USR leader Dacian Ciolos said that
no decision was made during the first round of talks he had on Wednesday with
representatives of the National Liberal Party (PNL), the Democratic Union of
Ethnic Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) and of the national minorities with a view
to building up a government majority. A new meeting is going to take place on
Friday. Ciolos says he wants to forge a government as soon as possible to be
able to tackle the issues related to the pandemic and the soaring energy
prices. According to Ciolos, the USR sees no majority format except for that
involving the PNL, UDMR and the representatives of the minorities in Romania.
According to interim Prime Minister and Liberal leader Florin Citu, the responsibility
for a majority lies with the USR, PSD and AUR who voted the PSD censure motion
that led to the dismantling of his cabinet. In turn, UDMR leader Kelemen Hunor
has signaled the lack of trust and recommended politicians to put
self-importance aside.

HOLOCAUST Romanian president Klaus Iohannis attended an International Forum
dedicated to the commemoration of the Holocaust and combating anti-Semitism in
Malmo, Sweden, on Wednesday. In his speech Iohannis said quote, ‘attempts at
denying and distorting the Holocaust have lately turned increasingly subtle and
dangerous in order to downplay the responsibility of the participants and their
cronies as well as the suffering inflicted on the victims.’ President Iohannis
says that Romania has been involved in an ample process of revising the
education programmes about the Holocaust with its young generation. The
Romanian official has also mentioned the efforts underway for the inauguration
in Romania of the National History Museum of the Jews and the Holocaust.

COVID-19 According to the National
Centre for the Supervision and Control of Infectious Diseases in Bucharest, 94%
of the deaths caused by the coronavirus over October 4th and 10th
consisted of patients with related comorbidities while 73% of the confirmed
cases and 91% of the registered fatalities consisted of unvaccinated
individuals. Authorities in Romania on Wednesday announced over 15,700 new
infections as well as 390 fatalities. At least 1670 people are in ICUs and the
highest infection rates have been reported by capital city Bucharest and Timis
county, in western Romania. Doctor Adrian Marinescu, with the Bucharest-based
Institute for Infectious Diseases, says that he expects the entire month of
October to be very difficult from the viewpoint of the medical crisis but
believes the situation will improve and the upcoming winter holidays are going
to be peaceful.

AID
Hungary will help Romania to treat 50 patients infected with Covid-19 who are
in need of intensive care, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto was
quoted by MTI as saying on Wednesday. The 50 patients are to be treated in two
hospitals in Hungary. According to the Hungarian official, Hungary has already
donated ventilators and favipiravir, an
anti-viral drug used in treating Covid 19. Poland has offered 50 oxygen
concentrators while Italy has donated five thousand doses of monoclonal
anti-bodies also used in the treatment of the disease. We recall that
authorities in Romania had called for international assistance in their efforts
to keep the pandemic at bay.

(bill)