April 27, 2020 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 27.04.2020, 20:30

Covid-19 Romania Romania’s
president Klaus Iohannis has announced that schools and universities in Romania
will stay closed this school year, and the average grades will be calculated on
the basis of the grades that the students have already received. Pupils will
come back to normal schooling in September. The president has also stated that
people aged over 65 will have two intervals during which they are allowed to
get out of their homes. The information has been confirmed by the Interior
Minister Marcel Vela, who has presented the measures included in the military
decree no.10, adopted on Monday. Among other things, the new measures include
an extension of the suspension of commercial flights to and from Spain for
another 14 days. Also extended are restrictions regarding flights to and from
Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, the US, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Turkey
and Iran for another 13 days, as of May 2nd. Starting May third,
commercial flights to and from Italy are suspended for an additional 14 days. In
the two months that have passed since the first case of coronavirus infection was
reported in Romania, some 11.300 people have tested positive, and 631 have
died. According to the latest data provided by the Strategic Communication
Group, more than 3000 patients have been cured. Abroad, more than 1,500
Romanian citizens have been infected with the new coronavirus, mostly in Italy
and Spain. 75 of them have died.

Pandemic More
than 3 million people have been infected with the
new coronavirus across the world, according to Johns Hopkins University. Most
cases have been reported in the US, which is followed by countries from Europe:
Spain, Italy, France, Germany and Great Britain. Equally affected by the
pandemic are Turkey, Iran, China and Russia. The death toll has exceeded
207 thousand, with 55 thousand dead in the US alone. Despite this situation,
several countries are getting ready to relax restrictions: in Italy economic
activity is going to be partly resumed while preserving public protection
measures. People movement remains restricted, schools will open only in autumn
and Italian churches will stay closed. France is preparing regional relaxation
strategies starting May 11. A mobile phone application will warn people about
the risk of getting in contact with an infected person. The same will happen in
Germany and such an application is already operational in Australia and Israel.

Budget In the first quarter of the year, Romania
registered a budget deficit of 1.67% of the GDP, which is approx. 3.7 million
Euro, 3 times bigger than in the same period last year, according to data
published on Monday by the Finance Ministry. The increase is explained mainly
by the unfavorable evolution of budget collections from companies, in the
context of the pandemic, and refunds of paid VAT to support liquidities in the
private sector. Revenues to the general consolidated budget dropped in the
first three months of the year 2020 by 3.3% as against the similar period last
year, reflecting mainly a contraction of collections in March following fiscal
incentives granted to support the economy during the state of emergency.

Study A study conducted
by sociologists with the Research Institute for Quality of Life of the Romanian
Academy shows that Romania is faced with two crises in the context of the
COVID-19 pandemic: one medical and one economic, and that the living standards
will be affected mainly after the medical crisis has ended. The report shows that
it will take five years for people to be able to get to the purchasing power they
had before the crisis. Researchers recommend authorities to abrogate or
prorogate the pension law adopted in 2019, to index-link the pension point with
the inflation rate, to raise salaries only to compensate for the inflation rate
and to reintroduce a unitary national salary grid for the local administration

Agriculture All autumn
crops, especially those in the north and south of Romania, have been affected
by drought, the agriculture minister Adrian Oros has announced.
According to data provided by the line ministry, 3 million hectares of the
crops sown in autumn have already been affected. At present, only 10% of the
farming land can be irrigated. The agriculture minister Adrian Oros has promised
that farmers will get compensation for the losses caused by drought. (M.Ignatescu)