March 7, 2020 UPDATE

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 07.03.2020, 19:31

COVID-19 On Saturday
night Bucharest reported its first infection with coronavirus, a 49 year old
Romanian national who came back from Italy in February. Romania has so far confirmed
12 infections with COVID-19, the Group of Strategic Communication in Bucharest
has announced. Three of the people infected have been declared cured and have
left hospitals but the others are still being treated in medical centers across
Romania. 16 people have been quarantined and other 13 thousand are isolated at
home. Almost 6 thousand infections with the new coronavirus have been reported
in Europe, most of the cases in Italy, France, Germany, Spain and the United
Kingdom. China, the country where the virus was first discovered in December, has
reported 28 new cases but no infection has been discovered in the Hubei
province, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, for the second day in a row.
The World Health Organization has reiterated its appeal that all countries should
make containing the coronavirus outbreak their top priority. The virus has so
far made it to 97 countries infecting over 100 thousand and killing 35 hundred
mostly in China.

RUGBY Romania’s national rugby side on Saturday was outperformed by Russia
25-32 in an away game counting towards the fourth leg of Rugby Europe
Championship, the continent’s second major competition after the Six Nations
Championship. This has been Romania’s third defeat after the away matches
against Georgia and Portugal. Our players only managed a 24-7 home win against
Spain and will further take on Belgium also at home on March 14th.

TENNIS According
to the WTA webpage, the world’s no. 2 tennis player Simona Halep of Romania has
withdrawn from the Indian Wells tennis tournament due to begin in California
next week to recover from injuries. In 2015 Halep won her first Premier
Mandatory title in Indian Wells after a finals win against Jelena Jankovic of
Serbia. Last year’s finalist Angelique Kerber of Germany has also announced her
intention not to participate for the same reason. This year’s edition of the
prestigious sporting event will bring together 73 of the world’s best 80
players.

MIGRATION Turkey is repatriating
the Syrian migrants at the border with Greece after a ceasefire for the Syrian
province of Idlib was signed by the Turkish and Russian presidents, Recep
Erdogan and Vladimir Putin respectively. Authorities in Ankara have already
informed the migrants that the EU border has been closed down and that buses
have been made available to take them to Istanbul and from there back to Syria.
However the Greek border forces remain on high alert after Turkish Interior
Minister Suleyman Soylu on Friday announced Ankara’s intention to deploy 1,000
policemen along the Evros River at the border with Greece in order to prevent
Athens from rejecting the migrants attempting to cross it. Romania’s interim
Interior Minister Marcel Vela has informed the Greek authorities that Romania
will increase the number of border police and their equipment in Greece. So,
besides the 21 border police already stationed in Greece, Romania decided to
add 8 more for the ground monitoring as well as a patrol ship with 24 crew
members and two experts as part of the operational assistance plan for Greece,
carried out under the aegis of the European Asylum Support Office.

GOVERNMENT The Romanian Parliament will next week set a date for
the investiture vote for the cabinet led by Prime Minister Designate Florin
Catu. A joint session could be scheduled next Friday at the latest. 16 proposed
ministers have been interviewed this week and nine of them got endorsement. The
Catu cabinet has to muster 233 votes for Parliament support. We recall the
first Liberal government, led by Ludovic Orban (leader of the National Liberal
Party) has been sacked through a no-confidence vote. Orban’s second appointment
was contested at the Constitutional Court by his Social Democratic opponents
and the court, which took into consideration the declared intentions of the
Liberals and the president to trigger snap elections and not to get a
Parliament majority for the investiture vote, eventually ruled against Orban’s second
appointment.

(translated by bill)