Vaccination. The coordinator of Romania’s
\nmass vaccination campaign Valeriu Gheorghi\u0163\u0103 said on Tuesday
\nthat 775,000 people are on the waiting list for vaccination. 1.7 million have
\nalready been given the Covid jab, accounting for more than 9% of the country’s
\npopulation. The vaccines approved for use in Romania are Pfizer and BioNTech,
\nModerna and AstraZeneca. The authorities are expecting the first deliveries of Johnson&Johnson vaccines in April. Romania
\npassed the mark of 900,000 confirmed coronavirus cases since the outbreak first
\nbegan about a year ago. More than 6,100 new cases were reported on Tuesday.
\n1,367 Covid patients are in intensive care. 174 new fatalities were also
\nrecorded, taking the death toll to 22,440. <\/p>\n
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Justice. Romanian justice
\nminister Stelian Ion had online talks with European Commission experts on the
\nCooperation and Verification Mechanism, which could be lifted depending on the
\nprogress to be made in the upcoming period. According to a statement from the
\nRomanian Justice Ministry, the talks also tackled the draft law on the
\ndismantling of the Special Section for the investigation of magistrates, the amendment
\nof the justice laws and Romania’s new anti-corruption strategy. Prime Minister
\nFlorin Citu also said in a Facebook post last week that the European Commission
\nsupports the lifting of the mechanism by the end of the year. He made the
\nannouncement after a meeting with European Commission vice-president V\u011bra Jourov\u00e1.<\/p>\n
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NATO. NATO foreign ministers meeting on Tuesday in Brussels reiterated their
\ncountries’ commitment to collective defence and underlined that translatlantic
\npartnership remains the pillar of this defence. The declaration of the meeting
\nthat comes to an end on Wednesday recalls that NATO is a defensive alliance,
\nwhich, in response to a more dangerous and more unpredictable security
\nenvironment, is significantly consolidating its defence and deterrence
\ncapacities, its posture and flexibility. Romania’s foreign minister Bogdan
\nAurescu who attended the meeting in Brussels, said Romania
\nsupports the proposals of the NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg as part of the reflection process on NATO’s future and
\nwould like to see the Alliance boost its role, both political and military. In
\nBucharest’s view, more emphasis should be placed on defence and deterrence,
\nwhile strengthening NATO’s posture especially on the eastern flank. Aurescu
\nalso recalled Romania’s intention to set up a euro-Atlantic centre for
\nresilience in Bucharest. The meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels is
\nthe first to be held in-person since November 2019.<\/p>\n
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Exercise. A Romanian ship is taking part in the Ariadne 21 multinational exercise for mine
\ncountermeasure operations off the coast of Greece between 27th March
\nand 4th April. Taking part are ships and navy staff from Bulgaria,
\nFrance, Greece, Italy, Spain and Turkey. The exercise is also meant to enhance
\ninteroperability with other NATO forces specialised in this field. The Romanian
\nship has a crew made up of army divers specialising in locating makeshift
\ndevices and using equipment specific to hydrographic surveys. <\/p>\n
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Radio drama. Twin Souls, a production of Radio
\nRomania’s Radio Drama Department, written by Petre Barbu and directed by Attila
\nVizauer has been shortlisted at the UK International Radio Drama Festival held
\nonline between March 22 and 26. Over 100 productions from 21 countries are in
\ncompetition, of which 20 have been shortlisted for the Radio Drama category and
\n24 for the Short Forms category. The festival brings together work from
\nnational broadcasters and independent producers from around the world. The
\ntheme of this year’s festival is We shall everyone be mask’d, an allusion to
\nboth the current health crisis and the mandatory wearing of facemasks and the
\nmask as a symbol of theatre and the stage. <\/p>\n
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Tennis. Romanian tennis player Mihaela
\nBuz\u0103rnescu (WTA 137) defeated Canada’s Leylah Fernandez, 6-4, 6-2 to
\nmake it to the last qualifying round of the Miami Open. Buz\u0103rnescu will next be up against Germany’s Anna-Lena Friedsam
\n(WTA125). Three Romanian players, namely 3rd seed Simona Halep,
\nSorana C\u00eerstea and Irina Begu are already
\non the main draw in Miami. (CM)<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A roundup of local 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":[29871,13794,31180,28939,31797],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-104983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-justice","tag-nato","tag-radio","tag-tennis","tag-vaccination"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n