COVID-19 – The Omicron variant
\nof COVID-19 is becoming dominant in Romania. Over 95% of sequence testing revealed
\nthe Omicron strain, Health Minister Alexandru Rafila has said. The Romanian
\nofficial believes the infection rate might go down at national level in three
\nweeks, with the daily number of infections measured in the hundreds instead of
\nthousands right now. Minister Rafila expressed hope the Easter Holidays will be
\ncelebrated without restrictions. The first restriction to be lifted will be the
\nwearing of face masks in open spaces. The Health Minister warned, however, that
\nthe number of hospitalizations must be reduced significantly before any
\nrestrictions are eased. As regards the number of ICU patients, the target is
\nfor the bed occupation rate to go down below 50%. According to Tuesday’s
\nreport, 14,775 new COVID-19 infections were reported within the space of 24
\nhours, as well as 215 related fatalities, of which 8 were prior to the
\nreference period. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
ROMANIA AND UKRAINE – Romania’s
\npresident, Klaus Iohannis, has condemned the blatant violation of international
\nlaw after Russia decided to recognize the independence of the separatist
\nrepublics of Donetsk and Luhansk in Eastern Ukraine, arguing the decision must
\nbe met with a harsh response from the international community. In turn, the
\nGovernment in Bucharest condemned any attempt at undermining the territorial
\nintegrity of Ukraine, highlighting that the subversion of a UN member’s statehood
\nis a revisionist approach to history threatening peace in Europe and beyond.
\nPrime Minister Nicolae Ciuc\u0103 said Romania is capable of receiving a large
\nnumber of refugees from Ukraine, arguing there are no repatriation requests
\nfrom any of the approximately 400,000 Romanians living in Ukraine. Russia’s
\nmove was also criticized by political leaders in Bucharest. The Romanian
\nForeign Ministry has raised the alert level to high, urging Romanians to leave
\nthe country immediately in the wake of the deterioration of the security
\nclimate in this country and in the Black Sea region. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
UKRAINE
\n– Earlier today, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, criticized the
\nviolation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity after Moscow
\ndecided to formally recognize the two separatist republics of Donetsk and
\nLuhansk on Monday. On the other hand, president Zelensky said he expects firm
\nand effective support from its Western allies against Russia. The UN Security
\nCouncil convened in an emergency meeting last night as the international
\ncommunity started to react to Putin’s decision. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz,
\nUS president Joe Biden and France’s president Emmanuel Macron last night agreed
\nthat Russia has clearly violated the Minsk protocol. The United States, the
\nUnited Kingdom and Western allies have today announced new sanctions against
\nMoscow, while Russia’s representative to the UN warned Western nations to think
\ntwice, to set emotions to one side, and not to make the situation worse.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
INTELLIGENCE – The head of the
\nRomanian Intelligence Service, Eduard Hellvig, is today invited to attend a
\njoint Parliament committee meeting to discuss the activity of the Intelligence
\nService and to brief MPs over the security developments in the extended Black
\nSea region and on NATO’s eastern flank. According to a press release, the
\nCommittee will also be briefed concerning the latest security developments on
\nthe Ukrainian border and other topics of interest to Romania. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
UNEMPLOYMENT – Unemployment
\nslightly went down nationwide from 2.68% at the end of January, by 0.01%
\ncompared to the previous month and by 0.66% compared to January, 2021.
\nAccording to a press release issued by the National Employment Agency, the
\ntotal number of unemployed in Romania stood at some 234 thousand people at the
\nend of January, of whom most are from rural areas, are aged 40-49 and have
\nsecondary education studies. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
TENNIS – Romanian tennis
\nplayer Jaqueline Cristian advanced to the second round at the WTA 1000
\ntournament in Doha, Qatar, after ousting 11th-seed Elena Rybakina of
\nKazakhstan in straight sets. Cristian is the only Romanian left in the women’s
\nsingles, and will today go up against Daria Kasatkina of Russia (WTA 28), who
\nin the previous round knocked out Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia. Simona Halep,
\nIrina Begu and Sorana C\u00eerstea were eliminated in the first round on Monday.
\n(VP)<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A roundup of domestic and inter<\/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":[35374,33133,36559,36560,30268],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-105708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-covid-19","tag-doha-tournament","tag-romania-and-ukraine","tag-ukraine-intelligence-briefing","tag-unemployment"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n