COVID-19 IN ROMANIA – Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Tuesday
\nhighlighted the need to accelerate the vaccination campaign, warning that
\nfading signs of the pandemic might induce a false sense of security in people
\nwho haven’t got immunized. The president said a large number of the population
\nstill needs to get vaccinated. The President had a work meeting with Prime
\nMinister Florin C\u00ee\u0163u and government members regarding the anti-COVID-19
\nvaccination campaign. According to the president, the success of the
\nvaccination will impact the full reopening of all social and economic sectors
\nin post-pandemic Romania. According to the Facebook page of the vaccination
\ncampaign, over 4 million people got vaccinated at national level since the
\nstart of the vaccination campaign, and 6.9 million doses of vaccine have been
\nadministered so far. According to the authorities, Romania ranks 7th
\nat European level in terms of the percentage of fully-vaccinated population and
\n21st at world level. Tens of thousands of people have been immunized
\nin recent days in drive-through centers (by car) and through vaccination
\nmarathons across the country. The capital’s Emergency Situations Committee
\ndecided on Monday that preschoolers and pupils will be able to return to class
\nphysically, starting Wednesday, with the observance and application of all
\nprotection rules. On the other hand, the Strategic Communication Group reported
\non Tuesday 681 cases of infection with the new coronavirus out of almost 32
\nthousand tests performed nationwide. In the last 24 hours, 91 patients
\ndiagnosed with COVID-19 died. There are now more than 4,600 patients in
\nhospitals, of whom 716 in intensive care. At this moment, at national level, an
\nincidence higher than 1 per one thousand inhabitants is registered only in Cluj
\ncounty – 1.18, and Alba county – 1.14.<\/p>\n
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VACCINATION CERTIFICATE – Romania is ready to introduce the green vaccination
\ncertificate that will be used at European level, the spokesperson for the
\nSpecial Telecommunications Service, C\u0103t\u0103lin Chirca told Radio Romania. STS is
\nalready working on an IT system with two components: a portal wherefrom
\ncitizens will download their green certificate for free and an application that
\nwill allow the verification of issued certificates. Adina V\u0103lean, the European
\nCommissioner for Transport, has explained that, currently, there are 18 member
\ncountries that have scheduled tests of their solutions and the connection that
\ntheir databases will establish with the European information exchange platform.
\nRomania is scheduled for May 21 to take its interoperability test. The green
\nvaccination certificate, which will contain a QR code, will facilitate free
\nmovement in the EU during the COVID-19 pandemic. It will certify that a person
\nhas been vaccinated against coronavirus or, as the case may be, that he or she
\nhas recently had a negative test result or that he or she has been infected
\nwith the virus.<\/p>\n
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ECONOMY – In the first quarter of this year, Romanian economy
\nwas the most dynamic in the European Union, with a growth of the Gross Domestic
\nProduct of 2.8% compared to the last quarter of 2020, according to preliminary
\ndata published on Tuesday by Eurostat. Next come Cyprus (2%), Hungary (1.9%)
\nand Lithuania (1.8%). Earlier, the National Institute of Statistics had too
\nannounced this growth, above estimates, of the Romanian economy in the first
\nquarter of 2021. Prime Minister Florin C\u00ee\u0163u wrote on Facebook that it’s the
\nfastest economic recovery in history, in response to the biggest crisis in the
\nlast hundred years. He also wrote that the Government is preparing new measures
\nto make Romania’s post-pandemic economy stronger and more competitive. For this
\nyear, the authorities estimate an economic growth of about 4.3%, after a
\ndecline of 3.9% in 2020.<\/p>\n
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CONFLICT – France has called on Israel to grant swift and
\nunrestrained access to humanitarian aid to Gaza after a crucial crossing point
\nwas closed down, French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Tuesday in the
\nNational Assembly. The international community is making efforts to put an end
\nto the bloody Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza. On Tuesday, following
\nIsrael’s latest air strikes and missiles launched by Hamas, the situation escalated
\nat the Kerem Shalom border crossing point, which Israel closed down a few hours
\nlater after a new missile barrage from the Palestinian side. Also on Tuesday,
\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave assurances that the United States
\nwill not stand in the way of UN diplomacy in the Israeli-Palestinian dialogue,
\nwithout promising, however, they would support a UN Security Council resolution
\ncalling for a ceasefire. According to France Press news agency, the US official
\nrecalled that President Joe Biden on Monday voiced support for a ceasefire agreement.
\nIsrael and Hamas militants continue to bomb each other’s positions after a week
\nof intense fighting. (MI & VP)<\/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":[35374,35516,36196,36197,32305],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-105095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-covid-19","tag-economic-recovery","tag-green-vaccination-certificates","tag-israeli-palestinian-conflict","tag-vaccination-campaign"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n