COVID-19 IN ROMANIA – Almost
\n6,200 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Romania on Thursday. The total
\nnumber of infected people nationwide has exceeded 880,000. Most cases were
\nregistered in Bucharest, with more than one thousand new infections in 24
\nhours. The capital and eight other counties are currently in the red scenario,
\nwith over 3 cases per one thousand inhabitants. There are 1,286 people in
\nIntensive Care, a new record for the last months. Another 90 people infected with
\nSARS-CoV-2 have died, bringing the death toll to 22,000. The alert state
\nimposed in the pandemic context has been extended in Romania, since March 14,
\nby another 30 days. All restrictions imposed so far are still in place, and in
\naddition, night curfew now starts at 10 pm.<\/p>\n
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VACCINE – In Romania, the national
\nimmunization campaign against COVID 19 continues. Since its start on December
\n27, over 1.6 million people have been vaccinated, mostly with Pfizer-BioNTech,
\nbut also with Moderna and AstraZeneca. Romania has decided to continue
\nvaccination with AstraZeneca, based on scientific data and the recommendations
\nof the European Medicines Agency, the coordinator of the national immunization
\ncampaign, Colonel Valeriu Gheorghi\u0163\u0103, explained. He said the decision was not
\neasy when many European countries – including Germany, Italy and France -
\ndecided to temporarily suspend the use of the vaccine as a precautionary
\nmeasure following reports of blood clotting problems in people who had been
\ngiven a dose of this vaccine. The third stage of vaccination has started this
\nweek, addressing the general population. For the time being, vaccinations are
\ntaking place in localities where the incidence of COVID-19 cases is higher than
\n4.5 per one thousand inhabitants. The rest of the population can subscribe to
\nwaiting lists on the electronic platform.<\/p>\n
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EMA – The European Medicines Agency (EMA) on
\nThursday announced the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and effective against
\nCOVID-19. The announcement came from EMA director, Emer Cooke, who pointed out
\nthe benefits of this vaccine outweigh the risks, and that there is no
\nconnection between the administration of this vaccine and the development of
\nblood clots in patients who were given the jab.
\nThe announcement comes after several European Union member states suspended
\nthe administration of this vaccine for fear of side effects. On January 29, the
\nEMA gave the green light to this vaccine developed by the British-Swedish
\nlaboratory AstraZeneca and Oxford University. Last month, the World Health
\nOrganization authorized the AstraZeneca vaccine for emergency use, making it
\neasier for developing countries to access this relatively cheap serum.<\/p>\n
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JUDICIARY – The judicial
\ncommittee of the Chamber of Deputies on Thursday adopted, by majority of votes,
\nthe Government’s bill on abolishing the Special Section Investigating Crime in
\nJustice. The document also includes an amendment tabled by the group of
\nnational minorities, which calls for an opinion from the Superior Council of
\nMagistrates for indicting magistrates. The opposition and part of magistrates’
\nassociations have criticized the bill. Social-Democrat leader Marcel Ciolacu
\nsaid his party would challenge the bill at the Constitutional Court if adopted
\nby Parliament. Coalition parties on the other hand expressed their support for
\nthe bill, which is due to be debated in the Chamber of Deputies. The Senate is
\nthe decision-making body in this matter. Prime Minister Florin C\u00ee\u0163u in February
\nsaid shutting down the Special Section is one of the projects of his coalition
\ngovernment, as well as a recommendation of the European Commission under the
\nCooperation and Verification Mechanism. <\/p>\n
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ALPINE CLIMBING – Romanian
\nalpine climber Horia Colib\u0103\u015fanu has left for Nepal where he begins his 17th
\nexpedition in the Himalayas. His objective is open up a new route to Dhaulagri
\nsummit (8.167m). The 2021 expedition will take place over March – June. His
\nteam also includes another two seasoned climbers: Marius Gane – a
\ntop-performing athlete and high-altitude climber and Peter Hamor, a Slovakian
\nclimber who’s summited all 14 8,000-meter peaks in the Himalayas. The three
\nwill try to summit without oxygen and Sherpa support. This will be Colib\u0103\u015fanu’s
\n22nd international expedition. He is the only Romanian climber to be
\nawarded the Spirit of Mountaineering distinction by the British Alpine Club,
\nthe first and most prestigious mountaineering club in the world.<\/p>\n
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TENNIS – Romanian tennis player
\nJaqueline Cristian (160 WTA) obtained the best performance of her career after qualifying
\nto the quarterfinals of the WTA 500 tournament in St. Petersburg, totaling 565
\nthousand dollars in prizes. Cristian ousted Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, a
\nformer winner at Roland Garros and seeded 6th in the competition. In
\nthe next round, Jaqueline Cristian will take on Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia
\n(39 WTA). In the doubles, the pair made up of Monica Niculescu of Romania and Lesley Pattinama
\nKerkhove of the Netherlands advanced to the semi-finals, where they will play
\nRaluca Olaru of Romania and Nadia Kicenok of Ukraine. The top favorites, Olaru
\nand Kicenok, ousted Arina Rodionova of Australia and Rosalie
\nVan Der Hoeck of the Netherlands in the quarterfinals. (M.I. & V.P.)<\/p>\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":[36100,36098,35374,31771,36097,31432,36099,32402],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-104973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-alpine-climbing","tag-astrazeeca","tag-covid-19","tag-ema","tag-jaqueline-cristian","tag-judiciary","tag-special-section","tag-vaccine"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n