COVID-19 IN ROMANIA – Romania on Monday received the largest
\nbatch of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, more than 725 thousand doses, the National
\nCommittee for the Coordination of Vaccination Activities announced. Also on
\nMonday, about 41 thousand doses of AstraZeneca vaccines arrived in Romania.
\nSince the beginning of the vaccination campaign, on December 27, 2020, almost 5
\nmillion doses of vaccine have been administered to more than 3 million people.
\nOf these, about 1.8 million received both doses. On the other hand, Bucharest
\nstill has 3.46 cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection per thousand inhabitants. The
\ncounties of Ilfov (southeast) and Cluj (northwest) have reported similar rates.
\nThe Strategic Communication Group on Monday announced 1,256 new cases of
\nCOVID-19. 1,350 people are hospitalized in Intensive Care and 117 people have
\ndied from Covid-19 in the same period.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
COVID-19 IN THE WORLD – Nearly 148 million people have been
\ninfected with the new coronavirus in the world since the beginning of the
\npandemic – according to worldometers.info. More than 125 million people have
\nrecovered and 3.1 million have died from the infection. More and more European
\ncountries are easing restrictions as vaccination programs begin to show
\nresults. In Italy, 14 regions on Monday entered the yellow scenario, which
\nallows the reopening of restaurants, theaters and cinemas. Only Sardinia
\nremains in the red zone, with the most severe anti-COVID restrictions still in
\nplace. In Belgium, beauty shops and stores are allowed to open. In France,
\nschools will be reopened as of next week. In Berlin, a so-called vaccination
\nsummit is scheduled between the state leadership and the federal government, to
\ndiscuss the suspension or partial lifting of restrictions. Greece is today
\nlifting quarantine restrictions for tourists coming from several countries as
\nGreek authorities prepare for the official opening of the summer seasons on May
\n15.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
PNRR – Romanian Minister for Investments and
\nEuropean Funds, Cristian Ghinea, announced on Monday that Romania will be
\nsubmitting the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) on May 31. Ghinea
\nattended a working meeting on Monday convened by president Klaus Iohannis in
\nBucharest. Attending were also Prime Minister Florin C\u00ee\u0163u, Chamber of Deputies
\nPresident Ludovic Orban and Deputy Prime Ministers Dan Barna and Kelemen Hunor.
\nThe government is due to make some changes to the plan, before officially
\npresenting it to the European Commission, after the EU executive said that the
\namounts provided for infrastructure were too high and that it would not agree
\nwith the financing of irrigation systems. PNRR is designed to help the national
\neconomy recover after the COVID-19 pandemic. In recent days, the
\nSocial-Democratic Party in opposition has claimed the European Commission
\nrejected Romania’s proposed plan. Government officials have denied the
\naccusation, explaining the Commission has made some recommendations to the
\nvariant submitted by the Government, which is something normal before a final
\ndocument can be submitted to Brussels. Social-Democrat leader Marcel Ciolacu,
\ninsists that the National Recovery and Resilience Plan be debated transparently
\nin Parliament.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
DIPLOMACY – The Romanian authorities have decided to
\ndeclare the deputy military attach\u00e9 of the Russian Embassy in Bucharest, Alexey
\nGrishaev, persona non grata on Romanian territory. According to a communiqu\u00e9 of
\nthe Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the decision was taken considering
\nthat his activities and actions contravene the provisions of the 1961
\nVienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations . Also according to the
\nRomanian MFA, these elements were communicated to the Russian side, when the
\nAmbassador of the Russian Federation in Bucharest Valery Kuzmin was summoned at
\nthe ministry’s headquarters, at the request of the Romanian Foreign Minister
\nBogdan Aurescu. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
CAR SCRAPPING – The Rabla Clasic and Rabla Plus car
\nscrapping programs, for the renewal of the Romanian car fleet, can be accessed
\nstarting Monday. Rabla Clasic has a budget of 440 million lei (about 88 million
\neuros), higher than last year, which will allow for the purchase of over 55,000
\nnew, less polluting vehicles. At the same time, the Rabla Plus program,
\nintended for the purchase of electric cars, benefits from a budget of 400
\nmillion lei (approximately 80 million euros), through which premiums of 10,000
\neuros will be granted for ‘full electric’ and about 4,500 euro for plug-in
\nhybrid cars, but not more than half the value of the new vehicle. Based on the
\nbudget allocated this year, Rabla Plus will facilitate the purchase of up to
\n6,600 electric cars and approximately 5,000 plug-in hybrid cars. (M.I. &
\nV.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":[36164,36166,35374,36165],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-105051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-alexey-grishaev","tag-car-scrapping-schemes","tag-covid-19","tag-pnrr"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n