October 14, 2021 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news.

Newsroom, 14.10.2021, 20:03

COVID-19 – Romanian authorities on Thursday announced over 16,300 new infections with Covid-19 in 24 hours out of almost 68 thousand tests performed, as well as more than 300 related fatalities. At least 1,720 people are treated in ICUs. The highest infection rates have been registered in several localities near the capital city — over 20 per thousand inhabitants, in the by capital Bucharest and Timis county, in western Romania. Also on Thursday, the first 10 patients in a critical condition from Covid-19 were transferred to the neighboring Hungary for treatment. Some 50 Romanian patients are to be treated in medical units in Szeged and Debrecen in Hungary. Doctors in Romania have called again on the population to get the vaccine and observe prevention rules. According to the National Centre for the Supervision and Control of Infectious Diseases in Bucharest, 94% of the patients who died from the coronavirus between October 4th and 10th had additional health problems while 73% of the confirmed cases and 91% of fatalities were in unvaccinated individuals.

TALKS – Romania’s Prime Minister designate, the USR leader Dacian Ciolos, is waiting until Friday for an answer from his former ruling coalition partners, the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) on whether or not they want to be part of a new government coalition led by the first. On Wednesday Ciolos had a first round of talks with PNL and UDMR representatives, with a view to building a government majority. The previous one, made up of PNL, USR and UDMR was dismantled after the USR had left the coalition and endorsed a censure motion against the cabinet led by the Liberal Florin Citu. If the three former coalition partners cannot reach an agreement, USR doesn’t rule out the idea of a minority government made up only of its own party members.

BUDGET – The Government in Bucharest on Thursday approved additional funds for the Health Ministry out of the budget reserves made available to the government. Roughly 2 million Euros are to be spent for the purchase of the Diphtheria — Tetanus-Pertussis vaccine — DTPA, part of the compulsory vaccination scheme for children. Also some products from the state reserve will be used as internal humanitarian aid to equip a number of Covid vaccination centers with the necessary materials. Interim Pm Florin Citu said that the Government initiated a draft law to be submitted to Parliament for approval, according to which the medical personnel that is not vaccinated and has not have the disease will have to pay for Covid tests out of their own pockets.

INVESTMENT – Direct foreign investment accounted for 4.4 billion Euros in the first 8 months this year as compared to 1.4 billion in the same period of 2020, a 197% increase, according to Romania’s Central Bank. On the other hand, in the first eight months of the year, the country’s foreign debt rose by more than 8.4 billion Euros exceeding 135.2 billion Euros. The number of newly-established companies with foreign capital went up in the first eight months by 44% as compared to the similar period last year, data released by the National Registry Office says. Most of these enterprises are operating in the retail market, car and motorcycle service, professional, administrative, technical and scientific activities as well as in storage and transportation.

DOTA 2 – The National Arena in Bucharest venues the world’s most important e-sports competition — the Tenth International (TI 10) for Dota 2. The group stage ran until October 10, with the main stage beginning on October 12, and the finals planned for October 17. Teams will be battling it out in Dota 2 games for a portion of a 40-million dollar prize pool. The tournament can be watched online, by 100 million people, organizers have said. There will be financial gains for the Romanian state as well, as a 16% tax on the total awards of 40 million dollars will be paid. TI10 was originally planned to run in Stockholm in August 2021, until the Swedish Sports federation announced that it would not accept e-sports into the sports federation, meaning that Dota 2 players would not be exempt from travel restrictions. (EE)