August 2, 2020 UPDATE

Romania marks European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day./ Coronavirus cases top 53,000 in Romania./ Romanian tennis players in action at Palermo tournament.

Newsroom, 02.08.2020, 19:13

Roma Holocaust. President Klaus Iohannis issued a message on European
Roma Holocaust Memorial Day. He said Romania may be considered a model for
other countries in the region for how it accepted responsibility for the
Holocaust and for its efforts to combat anti-Semitism. We must keep alive the
memory of the victims and consolidate efforts to combat anti-Semitism,
xenophobia and Holocaust denial, the president also said. The foreign ministry
has also published a statement. Keeping silent for many decades about the
suffering of the European Roma in the Nazi concentration camps helped entrench
prejudice and discrimination against this community. The foreign ministry also
supports accepting shared responsibility to fight prejudice, discrimination and
extremist actions of an ethnic or racial nature. On 2nd August 1944,
approximately 3,000 Roma died at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Some 500,000 Roma were
killed during the whole of the Holocaust. In Romania, 25,000 Roma were deported
to Transnistria on orders from the Romanian dictator and Nazi ally Ion
Antonescu. Around 11,000 were killed.

Covid-19 Romania. 1,075 new daily coronavirus
cases were reported in Romania on Sunday. Five months since the first case was confirmed,
Romania now tops 53,000 infections, while the death toll is 2,413. More than
400 people are in intensive care. The authorities have introduced new
restrictions amid a constant surge in the number of new cases. In several
counties, wearing a face mask is now also compulsory outdoors. Depending on the
rate of infection in a given area, face masks are either compulsory in all
public spaces or only in the more crowded areas or between certain hours. For
the next two weeks beginning today, bars and gaming centres will have to close
earlier in Bucharest and seven other counties due to recent spikes in cases.
Also, several localities around the country are in lockdown. A number of states
said they would introduce or maintain restrictions for travellers from Romania.

Covid-19 world. More and more
countries around the world are reintroducing some of the restrictions lifted in
the last month amid a new surge in coronavirus cases. Global infections have
reached 18 million while the death toll is nearing 690,000. Healthcare systems,
especially in the poorer countries, are close to collapsing. The World Health
Organisation has warned that the pandemic is likely to be lengthy. Global cases
have passed 18 million and death toll has reached 689,000. The United States,
Brazil, India, Russia and South Africa have the largest number of cases, with
the US seeing more than 60,000 new cases for five consecutive days. Australia
has imposed the strictest measures since the start of the outbreak. Europe is
also on alert. The World Health Organisation is worried about the evolution of
the pandemic, emphasising the importance of sustained community efforts to keep it under
control. Sustained
efforts are being made in the meantime to develop a vaccine.

Statistics.
Romanian residents spent 2.34 billion lei on holiday and business travel in the
first quarter of the year, of which almost 77% on domestic destinations,
according to the National Institute for Statistics. Some 91% travelled for
holiday, a figure similar to that recorded in the same period last year, while
travel for business and professional purposes accounted for 3.6% of travel. The
peak month for holiday travel domestically and abroad was January, while
February was the peak for business travel. More than 96% of holiday travel
abroad was in Europe, with EU countries accounting for 85%.

Film festival. The 19th Transylvania
International Film Festival is under in Cluj Napoca, in north-western Romania.
The focus this year is on safety and social distancing, with the festival
taking place exclusively outdoors at several locations around the city. The
line-up features more than 130 titles. This year’s edition is dedicated to the
great Italian director Federico Fellini. Romanian actress Maria Ploae is to
receive a special recognition award. The festival is coming to an end next
Sunday.

Tennis. Three Romanian players, Sorana Cirstea, Irina Begu and
Patricia Tig are in the main draw in the women’s singles at the Palermo tennis
tournament which is getting under way on Monday. This is the first WTA competition
held since March. Another Romanian player, Simona Halep, world no. 2, withdrew from Palermo amid the surge in the number of coronavirus cases.
In the first round, Cirstea faces Italy’s Sara Errani, Begu faces Germany’s Laura
Siegemund and Tig will play against the fourth seed, Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit. (CM)