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COVID-19 IN ROMANIA<\/b> -
\nRomania’s national vaccination campaign is in full swing, with over 534
\nthousand people immunized so far. Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu has announced
\nthat certain centers, which immunized people from outside the eligible
\ncategories, are to face sanctions. In turn, Education Minister Sorin C\u00eempeanu says that the personnel in
\nthe country’s education system will benefit from a special immunization line,
\nadding that the evolution of the infection rate is decisive in the decision to
\nbring students back to school again. Last week, Romania received only half of
\nthe doses requested and now has a deficit of 117 thousand. Over 2,900 new infections
\nwere announced on Thursday. Since the outbreak, 721 thousand people have got
\ninfected in Romania and more than 18 thousand died. About one thousand people
\nare currently being treated in IC units.<\/p>\n
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PANDEMIC <\/b>– Europe’s
\nconcern about the novel strains of the Covid-19 virus is on the rise. The UK
\nannounced it can resort to additional prevention measures, including the
\nisolation of visitors in hotels made available by the authorities. With six
\nmillion, Britain boasts the highest number of people immunized so far. Norway
\nis expected to close its borders for all visitors, with the exception of those
\nessential, applying some of the toughest prevention measures in Europe. The
\ncountry, which is not an EU member, has announced these restrictions after the
\ndiscovery of an outbreak of the more contagious strain initially identified in
\nBritain. The government in Berlin is considering the cancellation of almost all
\ninternational flights in order to prevent the spreading of the mutating virus.
\nIn Portugal, the government decided to cancel all the flights towards Brazil
\nstarting this Friday, due to the growing number of infections. The new strain, initially
\ndiscovered in Britain, has also been detected in another 70 countries, the WHO
\nsays. According to worldmeters.info, over 101 million infections have been
\nregistered worldwide so far and at least 2.1 million people have died.<\/p>\n
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PROTEST <\/b>– Members
\nof the Medical Solidarity Trade Union Federation on Thursday protested in
\nBucharest, calling for protection measures for the workers in Romania’s medical
\nfield after 93 professionals in this field have so far died in the line of
\nduty. Besides legal rights, other claims are focusing on various forms of
\nrecognizing the efforts and sacrifices made by the medical personnel. According
\nto unionists, protests have also been caused by the government’s refusal to
\nparticipate in a social dialogue. Also on Thursday, in Iasi, north-eastern
\nRomania, trade unionists from the country’s penitentiary system protested over a
\nplanned wage freeze in the sector. Protesters have called for the elimination
\nof unequal pay in the public system, the implementation of the pay law in
\nstate-owned institutions and a minimum wage adjusted to the latest price hikes
\nin consumer goods. <\/p>\n
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SCHENGEN <\/b>-
\nRomania is ready to become a Schengen member as soon as possible, Interior
\nMinister Lucian Bode said on Thursday on the sidelines of a videoconference of
\nthe informal Justice and Home Affairs Council. Minister Bode called for
\nstepping up discussions in this matter, underlining the important contribution
\nBucharest has made to common efforts to manage migration, by means of constant
\nparticipation to FRONTEX activities, by means of actions to relocate people in
\nneed of international assistance in the wake of search and rescue operations in
\nthe Mediterranean. Originally slated for March 2011, Romania’s Schengen
\naccession was repeatedly postponed due to opposition voiced by Member States
\nregarding insufficient reforms in the justice sector. <\/p>\n
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PENSIONS <\/b>-
\nThe Labor Ministry on Thursday started a large-scale assessment of the 5
\nmillion pensions in the public system by means of an EU-funded project that will
\nlast 18 months. According to Labor Minister Raluca Turcan, based on this
\nassessment and on an upcoming law, a recalculation of pensions will follow.
\nMinister Turcan says discussions regarding a new pension law, which should
\ninclude a new formula for calculating pensions, will start within the month.
\nThe last recalculation was operated in the 2005-2010 period. In other news,
\nchildren’s allowances will go up 20% starting February 1. Children aged 2-18
\nwill receive some \u20ac44 per month. Children up to 2 years of age and those with
\ndisabilities will receive \u20ac90 per month. <\/p>\n
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CORRUPTION <\/b>-
\nRomania is one of the most corrupt countries in the EU, being bottom of a
\nranking, the same as Hungary and Bulgaria, according to a Transparency
\nInternational report on the 2020 Corruption Perception Index. The ranking
\nreflects the perception of independent experts and businessmen on existing
\ncorruption. Romania has a score of 44 points of a 100, the same as in 2012,
\nwhich, according to experts, indicate that the measures taken in the last 10
\nyears have not been consistent, failing to change public perception on
\ncorruption. The lack of transparency on public procurement, the underfunding of
\nthe medical system, the lack of consistent measures to digitize administrative
\nprocesses are all constant issues at national level, which have only gotten
\nworse during the COVID-19 pandemic. Romanian society, the report also shows,
\nhas also lost its eagerness in sanctioning corruption and the lack of
\nintegrity. (V.
\nPalcu)<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A roundup of domestic and international news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":75903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[35374,33239,36020,31409,28976,32305],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-104880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-covid-19","tag-healthcare-protests","tag-perception-on-corruption","tag-public-pensions","tag-schengen","tag-vaccination-campaign"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n