UKRAINE Germany considers increasing its
\neconomic aid to Ukraine, but still refuses to supply it with weapons, DPA
\nquotes a governmental source in Berlin as saying. The announcement comes ahead
\nof a visit by chancellor Olaf Scholz to Kyiv on
\nMonday and to Moscow on Tuesday, in the
\ncontext of the Russian-Ukrainian standoff. Meanwhile, the US has started pulling out its OSCE
\nstaff from the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, controlled by pro-Russian
\nseparatists, Reuters reports. The US and many of its allies are urging their citizens to leave Ukraine, warning that a
\nRussian invasion may be imminent. The Romanian foreign ministry has raised the
\nalert level for Ukraine and advises Romanian citizens to avoid travelling to
\nthat country. Romanian nationals currently in Ukraine are urged to notify their
\npresence to Romania’s embassy or consular offices and to reconsider staying in
\nthat country. The foreign ministry also calls on Romanian citizens, including
\njournalists, to avoid big crowds, to stay up to date with information from
\nreliable sources and to adjust their plans to the security situation there. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
NATO Meanwhile, US Stryker
\narmoured vehicles have reached the Mihail Kog\u0103lniceanu military base in
\nsouthern Romania, where 1,000 US troops will also be relocated from Germany to
\nstrengthen NATO’s eastern flank. With the arrival of Task Force Cougar, the number of American troops in Romania
\nreaches nearly 2,000. France
\nhas also voiced willingness to deploy troops to Romania. A NATO member since
\n2004, Romania was already hosting 900 American, 250 Polish and 140 Italian
\ntroops. A unit of the US Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), comprising around 150
\ntroops and 8 F-16 Fighting Falcons, are conducting joint training missions with
\nRomanian troops and aircraft for 2 weeks. A senior Pentagon official also announced the US decided to send an
\nadditional 3,000 troops to Poland as well.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
COVID-19 The number of new COVID-19
\ncases continues to drop in Romania, with nearly 12,000 new cases reported on
\nSunday and 81 related deaths. Over 1,140 patients are currently in intensive care. The
\nlargest number of infections since the start of the pandemic, 40,018, was reported on February 1. The health minister Alexandru Rafila said the number of new reported
\ncases remains high, although it is falling quickly, and once again pleaded for
\nvaccination, especially among vulnerable categories. As for lifting the
\nrestrictions, the health minister did not specify a deadline, but stressed that
\nrelaxation will be as quick as the situation allows it. In turn,
\nthe head of the vaccination programme Valeriu Gheorghi\u0163\u0103 said that in the
\nfuture vaccination will be seasonal, just like for the flu, and the vaccine
\nwill be adjusted to the variant circulating at a particular time. He
\nalso said the vaccination rate in Romania stands at 50.5% of the adult
\npopulation. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\nPANDEMIC This weekend
\nrestrictions were eased off in Italy, Spain and Iceland, while France and Germany are planning to do the same in the
\ncoming weeks. Norway lifted the last protection measures in the country in
\nspite of a rise in the number of Omicron cases. However, the protests initiated
\nby truck drivers in Canada 2 weeks ago, and spreading to several other
\ncountries on Saturday, are still going on. European drivers headed to major
\ncapital cities to protest the compulsory vaccine and digital certificate. Protests
\nwere organised in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand. (A.M.P.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Click here for a roundup of local and world 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":[36553,35374,30320,13794,28990,29710,29310,36548,30299,28905],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-105692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-buildup","tag-covid-19","tag-military","tag-nato","tag-protests","tag-restrictions","tag-russia","tag-standoff","tag-troops","tag-ukraine"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n