EASTER Orthodox believers, who are a majority in Romania, and
\nGreek-Catholics are today celebrating Easter or the Resurrection of Jesus
\nChrist our Lord. The Christianity’s greatest event has this year been
\ncelebrated in empty churches as believers were prevented from attending
\nreligious services in order to observe social distancing rules imposed by the
\nCovid pandemic. All the believers watched live transmissions on various media
\nchannels instead. The Holy light was brought on Saturday from Jerusalem after a
\nspecial religious service, which was not attended by thousands of pilgrims like
\nit used to in the past years. In his message to believers on this occasion,
\nDaniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, says the resurrection of
\nChrist is for us a source of spiritual power to fight the disease, the fear of
\ndeath and suffering. <\/p>\n
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MESSAGES The US ambassador to Romania, Adrian
\nZuckerman on Sunday conveyed a message on his behalf and on president Trump’s
\nto the Romanians wishing them Happy Easter. In his Easter address to the
\nRomanians, Prince Charles, heir of the British crown, expressed his wish to get
\nback to Romania as soon as the pandemic is over and to meet members of the
\nRomanian community in Britain. Prince Charles has also evoked the indispensable
\nrole many Romanians are playing in the British national health service, in its
\ncare homes and in other key roles as we address this unprecedented crisis. We owe them an immense debt of gratitude and I can hardly say
\nhow much their remarkable efforts are appreciated by us all, Prince Charles
\nwent on to say. In his Easter address yesterday, Romanian President Klaus
\nIohannis underlined the Resurrection of Christ is a celebration of hope in a
\nseason of rebirth. The head of the Romanian state urged the Romanians to
\nexpress their love for the others by respecting the social distancing rules.
\nSimilar messages have been conveyed by Prime Minister Ludovic Orban and the
\nSenate interim president, Social-Democrat, Robert Cazanciuc and also by other
\nRomanian politicians. <\/p>\n
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TOLL The death toll of the pandemic in Romania reached 434, while 87
\nhundred infections have been confirmed. 19 hundred people have been cured and
\nleft hospitals. Over 1000 medical workers have tested positive for the virus,
\nmost of them in Suceava, northern Romania and in Bucharest. 60 Romanian
\nnationals infected with the virus died abroad. 730 Romanians have been infected
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PANDEMIC The official number of COVID infections
\nworldwide has exceeded 2.3 million, while the death toll stands at 160
\nthousand, most of them, over 100 thousand, in Europe. The USA has so far
\nreported 39 thousand fatalities and over 730 thousand infections confirmed. The
\nUS authorities are starting to gradually resume economic activities against the
\nbackground of demonstrations for ending the quarantine, our correspondent in
\nWashington has announced. The most affected European countries are Italy and
\nSpain. Russia has reported a record number of infections, 6,000 in the past 24
\nhours, the total number exceeding 42 thousand. <\/p>\n
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QUAKE An earthquake of 3.4 Richter was felt today in the seismic region
\nof Vrancea in south-eastern Romania, the National Institute for Earth Physics
\nhas today announced. 22 such small earthquakes have been reported in the area
\nsince the beginning of the month. The most powerful, a 5.2 quake was felt in
\nBucharest as well. On March 4th, 1977 a 7.2 earthquake, the most
\npowerful to have hit Romania, killed 1570 people mostly in capital Bucharest
\ncausing 2 billion euros in material damage. <\/p>\n
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(translated by bill)<\/p>\n
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