Romania seems to
\nhave overcome the fourth wave of the pandemic, although many fear the fifth is
\njust days away. This may be fueled by the emergence of a new strain of the
\nvirus, Omicron, developed in south Africa and considered extremely contagious.
\nA TAROM aircraft will bring home the remaining Romanian citizens who were left
\nstranded in South Africa after several flights were cancelled. Under the EU’s
\nCivil Protection Mechanism, a few other dozen EU citizens will be able to board
\nthe Romanian aircraft. Starting this week, after the National Day mini-holiday,
\nrapid saliva tests will be performed periodically in the case of pre-school and school children. Testing kits will be accompanied by instructions manuals,
\nand the procedure must be carried out in a fully sanitized environment. Pupils
\nwill be tested either in school or at home, by parents, based on the decision
\nof each schooling unit. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Education trade unions have threatened to stage
\nprotests unless testing is performed exclusively at home. Union leaders also
\nwarn that saliva tests do not observe any health safety regulation, as they are
\nexpected to be handled by at least three other people before reaching pupils,
\ngiven that every component is wrapped and sealed individually in a regular kit.
\nEducation Minister, Sorin
\nC\u00eempeanu, responded saying that testing kits reached schools broken down in
\ncomponents everywhere in Europe, and that teachers can help assemble them.
\nMeanwhile, interest in vaccination remains low. Less than 50,000 doses of
\nPfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson&Johnson were administered on
\nSunday in Romania, of which less than 11 thousand were the first dose.
\nAccording to authorities, some 7.5 million people have completed the full
\nvaccination scheme, whereas 1.5 million people have taken three doses of the
\nvaccine. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Chamber of Deputies in Romania will try to adopt a bill, similar
\nto other European states, making the so-called green COVID certificate
\nmandatory in workplaces. The new prime minister, Liberal Nicolae Ciuc\u0103, has
\ncalled on MPs to vote the document, whereas Health Minister, Social-Democrat
\nAlexandru Rafila, claims the certificate must be introduced when the infection
\nrate goes up for three consecutive weeks and eliminated when the infection rate
\ngoes down. (VP)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
All social activities in Romania remain impaired by the COVID-19 pandemic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":86150,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[35374,36206,35673,35748,29426],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-90484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-covid-19","tag-green-certificate","tag-schools","tag-testing","tag-trade-unions"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n