COVID-19 Today is the last day
\nof the COVID-19 state of alert in Romania. The epidemic sees a declining trend
\nacross the country, with the 5th wave of the pandemic close to the
\nend, president Klaus Iohannis said last week. Romania was on alert for nearly 2
\nyears, beginning on May 15, 2020. Five pandemic waves hit the country during
\nthis period, triggering protection measures, some of which will be lifted once
\nthe state of alert has come to an end. Over these 2 years, says the Strategic
\nCommunication Group, some 64,000 SARS-CoV-2 patients died in Romania. By
\nMonday, the country had seen roughly 2.78 million infection cases. The number
\nof new cases reported on Tuesday for the past 24 hours is around 5,500, with 101 related fatalities also
\nregistered, 4 of them from a previous date.<\/p>\n
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UKRAINE Russia
\nhas sent to Ukraine most of the forces it had deployed along the borders, with
\na majority of the 150,000 Russian troops currently on Ukrainian territory, the
\nPentagon says. On Tuesday, the 13th day of war, the Russian
\noffensive focuses on the capital Kyiv in the north and in the south, where
\nMoscow seeks control over the Black Sea and Sea of Azov coasts. Russian ships
\nhave changed position and are preparing a rocket attack on Odessa, Radio
\nRomania’s correspondent in the region reports, and mentions that local
\nauthorities continue to urge citizens to leave the city, which is believed to
\nbe a strategic target for the Russian invasion. Meanwhile, a new ceasefire
\nattempt has been announced for this morning, to enable civilians to leave
\nseveral cities that are under attack, including the capital Kyiv, where a
\nRussian attack is expected in the coming days. President Zelensky accused the
\nRussian army of preventing the evacuation of civilians, while the West
\ndescribed Russia’s offer to secure humanitarian corridors only to Belarus and
\nRussia as cynical. Adjusting the corridors and their logistics was announced
\nlast night, after the 3rd round of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations in
\nBelarus. Fresh talks are planned for the coming days, without an exact date
\nannounced as yet. On Thursday, a meeting is scheduled in Antalya, Turkey, between
\nthe Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers, also attended by Turkey’s
\ndiplomacy chief and mediated by the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The
\nUN has also called for corridors in the Ukrainian battle zones, to deliver aid
\nto the civilians struggling with substantial shortages.<\/p>\n
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REFUGEES Nearly 30,000 Ukrainian nationals entered Romania in
\nthe past 24 hours, according to the Romanian border police. Since the start of
\nthe crisis a total of around 300,000 Ukrainian citizens have entered Romania.
\nBucharest approved on Monday a new set of measures to support the refugees
\ncoming from the neighbouring country, both children and adults, whose rights
\nthe Romanian government will fully observe. The Ukrainian children in Romania
\nwill have access to education at the same standards as Romanian children, the
\nelderly and the disabled will be able to request social services, and people
\nseeking a job here will be able to get employed. <\/p>\n
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RESOURCES The price of all raw materials has soared
\naround the world since the start of the war in Ukraine and in the context of
\nthe sanctions against Russia. The most substantial price rises were reported
\nfor natural gas, wheat, oil and uranium. Romania will have no natural gas
\nshortages if Russian imports are cut, and stocks will be restored this spring,
\nthe authorities say. The energy minister Virgil Popescu says Romania has
\nalternative sources. According to analysts, Romania should begin storing
\nnatural gas as soon as possible, and it should also move to increase the local
\noutput.<\/p>\n
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STEEL The T\u00e2rgovi\u015fte Special Steel Works in southern Romania
\nhas been taken over by the Italian group Beltrame, one of the world’s leaders
\nin steel flat bars, local authorities have announced. According to the
\ninvestor, apart from revamping the plant, this year 200 new jobs will be
\ncreated, followed by another 1,000 in the next 5 years. The steel works,
\nprivatised in 2002, was held by the Russian group Mechel, but was declared
\nbankrupt last year.<\/p>\n
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WOMEN
\nThe rights of women and girls have been subject to alarming pressures over the
\npast year, Amnesty International warns. Events in 2021 and in the early months
\nof 2022 have conspired to crush the rights and dignity of millions of women and
\ngirls, said Amnesty International secretary general Agnes Callamard. In a
\nstatement posted on International Women’s Day, Callamard pointed out that the
\nCOVID-19 pandemic and the rollback on women’s rights in Afghanistan were among
\nthe developments that had a disproportionate impact on the rights of women and
\ngirls. She also listed in this respect the widespread sexual violence
\ncharacterizing the conflict in Ethiopia, attacks on abortion access in the US
\nand Turkey’s withdrawal from the landmark Istanbul Convention on Gender Based
\nViolence,” and called on governments to revoke the decisions that have
\nworsened the situation of women and girls. (A.M.P.)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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