September 7, 2020

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 07.09.2020, 14:23

COVID-19 Since the beginning of the
pandemic, Romania has confirmed over 95 thousand of infections with a death
toll standing around 3,893. Over 40,300 patients have been cured while 474 are
still in intensive care units. 6,599 Romanian nationals have been confirmed
infected abroad most of them in Germany, Italy and Spain. 126 of them have died.
People coming from Romania and Bulgaria to Italy must still stay in quarantine
for 14 days. At world level the total number of infected has exceeded 27
million and the death toll is around 887 thousand. The most affected countries
are the USA with 6.4 million cases, India and Brazil, both with over 4 million.
The most affected countries in Europe are Russia with over 1 million and Spain
with over 517 cases.

DIPLOMACY ‘Increasing Romania’s role inside the EU and NATO and also
consolidating and expanding the Strategic Partnership with the United States
remain the key lines in Romania’s foreign policy’, is the message conveyed by
the country’s president, Klaus Iohannis at the Romanian Diplomacy Annual
Meeting. According to the president, in the wake of the pandemic crisis, the
Romanian diplomacy is going to embrace some new facets and that involves
additional ingenuity and flexibility. The present Annual Meeting of Romanian
Diplomacy has been held online for the first time as videoconference and is
going to last three days under the title, ‘The impact of the pandemic over the
international tendencies and the Romanian diplomacy response’. High on the
agenda are the impact of the medical crisis over the international relations
and global tendencies as well as the adjustment of the Romanian diplomacy
instruments in this context. Among the invitees this year is the head of the European
diplomacy Josep Borrell and NATO’s deputy secretary general, Romanian Mircea
Geoana.

SCHOOL Romania’s Prime Minister Ludovic
Orban has said the school year begins on September 14th in this
country, at the same time underlining that people’s right to education is
fundamental. The Romanian official has explained the local authorities are
allowed to establish their own scenarios depending on the epidemiological
situation in their region. In Bucharest the infection rate in the past two
weeks has stood at 1.19 per thousand, which places the capital city in the yellow
zone and that allows for the students’ return to schools. 43 localities have
been placed in the red zone, where students are taking only online courses,
while over 27 hundred localities are in the green zone, allowing school
attendance. The Health Ministry will this week provide direction lines for the
organization of activity in education institutions to prevent the spread of the
coronavirus.

FOOTBALL Romania’s national football side will tonight take on Austria in a
new game of the Nation’s League Group 1B. On Friday in Bucharest, the Romanians
obtained only a one-all draw against Northern Ireland in their first game with
Mirel Radoi as the selector. We recall that Radoi last summer managed to qualify
Romania Under 21 for the semifinals of the European Championship in Italy and
San Marino. The group also includes Norway the Romanians are going to play next
month. Romania will be up against Iceland in Reykjavik on October 8th
in the semis of the European Championships play-offs. If they qualify, the
Romanians will be up against the winner of the game pitching Hungary against
Bulgaria.

UNICEF According to a UNICEF report
Romania has a large number of students with low competences in reading and
mathematics, placing the country among those at the bottom of a European
ranking. 40% of the children in the member countries of the EU’s Organization
for Economic Co-operation and Development on an average, lacks basic
competences in reading and maths by the age of 15. The countries ranking first in
the standings are Estonia, Ireland and Finland. According to the same survey, in
most countries less than four-fifths of children report being satisfied with
their lives. Turkey has the lowest rate of life satisfaction.

(translated by bill)