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COVID-19 ROMANIA<\/b> – The 5th wave of the pandemic might
\nhit Romania starting next month, Health Minister Alexandru Rafila said. Since
\nthe Omicron strain is much more contagious than Delta, Romania needs to
\nincrease its testing capacity, including in family physician practices, as well
\nas to improve the response capacity of hospitals, the Romanian minister added.
\nAlexandru Rafila says new medicines used to treat COVID-19 are expected to
\narrive in Romania shortly. The Romanian official called for revitalizing the vaccination
\ncampaign, which for the time being has reached a dead end. In turn, the head of
\nthe National Center for the Monitoring and Control of Communicable Diseases,
\nAdriana Pistol, said Romania could see 25,000 daily infections and over 1,500
\npatients in intensive care treatment in the worst-case scenario in the 5th
\nwave. Meanwhile, on Thursday, Romania reported another 1.497 new COVID-19
\ninfections and some 37 related fatalities, of which one was prior to the
\nreference period. Since the start of the pandemic, some 1.8 million cases of
\nCOVID-19 infection were reported in Romania, and 60,000 people have died to the
\nvirus. Romania has the second-lowest vaccination rate in Europe, after
\nBulgaria. Under 7.9 million Romanians have completed the vaccination scheme,
\naccounting for a little over 40% of the eligible population. Of these, some 2
\nmillion people have also received the booster shot. <\/p>\n
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COVID-19 WORLD<\/b> – In Europe, the COVID-19 virus continues to cause
\ndifficulties. WHO officials warn a tsunami of cases will follow due to the
\nOmicron and Delta strains still spreading. The highest number of daily
\ninfections was reported in France, over 200,000, an absolute record since the
\nstart of the pandemic. In Paris, as of Friday, face masks will become mandatory
\noutside. Another measure is to reduce the gap between the second dose and the
\nbooster shot to 3 months, and the introduction of the vaccination certificate,
\nwhich will replace the green certificate starting mid-January. Full vaccination
\nwill be therefore required to access most public venues in this country. The
\nUnited Kingdom, Italy, Denmark and Portugal also reported record-high numbers
\nof infection. In Belgium, the authorities rolled back its decision to close
\ntheatres, cinemas and performance halls, a measure introduced to limit the
\nspread of the Omicron strain and appealed by a theatre producer. <\/p>\n
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GOVERNMENT <\/b>– A new government meeting is today scheduled in
\nBucharest. Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuc\u0103 says high on the agenda are measures
\nrequired to conclude the fourth quarter of the National Recovery and Resilience
\nPlan. This autumn, the European Commission approved Romania’s plan, disbursing
\n29 billion Euro as subsidies and loans for investments and reforms to our
\ncountry. Romania has already received 1.8 billion Euro in the pre-financing
\nstage, tantamount to 13% of the plan’s total budget. <\/p>\n
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CALL CENTER<\/b> – The Romanian
\nForeign Ministry announced it successfully completed the process of modernizing
\nand streamlining the Call Center set up as part of the Contact and Support
\nCenter for Romanians Abroad. The number of call lines was extended, allowing for
\nthe reception of up to 256 phone calls simultaneously via an automatic
\napplication, as compared to 96 previously. All the consular assistance provided
\nvia the automatic reception line have been updated and restructured.
\nAdditionally, access to the emergency line has been prioritized, and the
\neconsulat.ro website has been optimized and simplified, now people being able
\nto access it easier from their tablets and smart phones. This year, the Romanian
\nForeign Ministry call center received a total of 1.2 million phone calls, and
\nreplied to approximately 240 thousand email requests from Romanians living
\nabroad.<\/p>\n
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EUROSTAT <\/b>– Over 96% of
\nRomania’s population lived in a household owning their home in 2020, the
\nhighest percentage recorded at EU level, the Eurostat reports. Meanwhile, at EU
\nlevel, the percentage of people who owned their homes dropped slightly compared
\nto 2019. In Romania, the percentage went up, from 95.8% in 2019, to 96.1% in
\n2020. Other states with a high percentage of home ownership are Slovakia (92%)
\nand Hungary and Croatia (both with 91%). At the opposite pole, the countries
\nwith the lowest percentage of home ownership are Denmark (59%), Austria (55%)
\nand Germany (a little over 50%). Eurostat figures also show that 53% of EU
\ncitizens live in a house, 46% in a flat, whereas 1% in houseboats or vans. In Romania,
\nnearly 66% of people live in houses and 34% in flats. However, our country
\nranks last at EU level in terms of the size of households, measured in terms of
\nbedrooms per person. The average at EU level is 1.6 bedrooms per person, while
\nin Romania it stands at 1.1 bedrooms. (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-105600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n