COVID-19
\nROMANIA – The Romanian health minister, Alexandru Rafila, announced on
\nWednesday that the duration of quarantine and isolation for people suffering
\nfrom Covid-19 will be reduced from 14 to 10 days, as in most European Union
\ncountries. The Romanian official said over 25,000 beds have been allotted to
\nCOVID patients in hospitals across Romania, accounting for 20% of the total
\nnumber of beds, with the possibility of increasing this capacity to 30%. In
\nturn, Adriana Pistol, the head of the National Center for the Monitoring and
\nControl of Communicable Diseases, urged people to get vaccinated in the context
\nof a future pandemic wave caused by the Omicron strain. 1,271 new cases of
\nSARS-CoV-2 infections have been reported in 24 hours in Romania, out of over 42
\nthousand tests, as well as 35 related deaths, two of which were from the
\nprevious day, the Strategic Communication Group announced on Wednesday. The
\ncountry has the second lowest vaccination rate among the 27 EU members, after
\nBulgaria. Less than 7.9 million Romanians have been fully vaccinated, that is a
\nlittle over 40% of the eligible population. About two million of them have also
\nhad the booster shot.<\/p>\n
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COVID-19
\nWORLD – The simultaneous circulation of the Delta and Omicron variants of
\nthe coronavirus is creating a tsunami of cases, World Health
\nOrganization (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press
\nbriefing on Wednesday in Geneva. The Omicron strain is spreading rapidly in
\nmany countries, but the number of hospitalized patients remains low for the
\ntime being. The UK on Tuesday recorded nearly 130,000 new cases of COVID-19,
\nwhich is a new record, and 18 Covid-related deaths. An absolute record since
\nthe beginning of the pandemic has also been registered in Portugal – 17,000 new
\ninfections in the last 24 hours, in a country with the highest vaccination rate
\nin the world, after the United Arab Emirates. Of Portugal’s population of 10
\nmillion people, almost a quarter has received booster doses, and the
\nrestrictions imposed are getting tougher and tougher. Switzerland reported
\n13,000 new cases on Wednesday, and 40 people vaccinated with three doses are
\nhospitalized. The solution put forward by the Swiss authorities is to simply
\navoid meetings with other people. In the Netherlands, too, the Omicron variant
\nis now dominant, but the infection rate remains on a downward trend for the
\ntime being due to a tough lockdown. Italy has recorded an absolute record of
\nover 78,000 new cases of COVID-19 in one day, the highest since the onset of
\nthe pandemic. In Turkey, too, the number of new infections has risen to more
\nthan 30,000, the highest since mid-October. The Turkish authorities insist on
\nthe need for vaccination. On Wednesday, Poland reported 794 COVID-19 related
\ndeaths, the highest daily number in the 4th pandemic wave. <\/p>\n
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MOLDOVA – The Government of the
\nRepublic of Moldova has ratified the Agreement with the Government of Romania
\non the mutual recognition of scientific titles. Under the new agreement, all
\ndiplomas attesting the completion of an academic cycle spanning 10 or 11 years
\nwill be recognized and validated. The five-year agreement between Chi\u015fin\u0103u and Bucharest will facilitate procedures aimed at
\nrecognizing scientific titles, will boost the quality of studies and will advocate
\nacademic and vocational mobility. <\/p>\n
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(LS &VP) <\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A roundup of domestic and international news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":105208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-105599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n