November 1, 2020 UPDATE

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 01.11.2020, 19:17

VISIT Romanian Prime Minister Ludovic Orban announced that he would pay
a formal visit to Israel next week for talks with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin
Netanyahu and the country’s president Reuven Rivlin. High on the talks agenda
will be ways to strengthen the bilateral and trade relations between the two
states. The Romanian official has this week been to Paris where together with
his French counterpart Jean Castex has signed an updated roadmap of the
strategic partnership between the two countries.

QUAKE According
to the National Institute for Earth Physics, an earthquake of 3.5 Richter took
place in south-eastern Romania at a depth of 144 kilometers. In October Romania
saw 43 earthquakes measuring between 2 and 4.2 degrees on the Richter scale. In
1977, Romania was hit by the strongest earthquake in its history, a 7.2 Richter,
which killed 1,570 people mostly in capital Bucharest and caused 2 billion
dollars in damage. Roughly 230 thousand household were either razed to the
ground or damaged and hundreds of economic facilities rendered non-operational.
The earthquake marked the onset of an economic and social crisis, which,
according to historians, the communist dictatorship was unable to overcome
since its demise in 1989. Experts believe that a similar earthquake would raze
to the ground hundreds of buildings in Bucharest at present.

RADIO November 1st was the
day of Romania’s National Radio, as in 1928, the country inaugurated its first
radio station with a broadcast announced by professor Dragomir Hurmuzescu as ‘Hello,
Hello, this is Radio Bucharest, Romania. During its existence spanning 92
years, the public radio has covered all the major events in Romania’s history. In
WWll, the station announced the country’s decision to join the Allies and
covered the anti-communist revolution of 1989. For 92 years, in times of peace
or war, in prosperity or crisis, the national radio managed to remain a
reference point in terms of accuracy and credibility. Romania’s Parliament has
endorsed the day of November 1st as the National Radio Day in
recognition of the role it played in the country’s history. According to the
latest audience measurements, Radio Romania is a market leader with a 30%
national share and over 3.6 million daily listeners.

COVID-19 Over 5,324 new infections with the novel coronavirus were reported in
Romania on Sunday by the Strategic Communication Group. The total number of
infections since the onset of the pandemic exceeded 246 thousand. 910,
are being treated in IC units. 99 new
fatalities have been registered and the death toll has exceeded 7 thousand.
Bucharest has reported the highest number of infections and authorities are presently
looking for solutions to the overcrowded ER units. Romania’s Health Minister
Nelu Tataru has recalled that 43 thousand rapid tests will become available
next week and pledged that the number of these test are to reach one million
soon.

NATO
Romania’s Frigate Queen Marie is in the Turkish port of Aksaz until Monday to
restore its battle capabilities. The ship has on board a Puma Naval helicopter
and a Special Operation unit and is carrying out missions of monitoring
maritime traffic and deterring illegal activities on NATO’s southern flank,
being part of the permanent Standing NATO Maritime Group -2 (SNMG-2) until
November 23rd. The group, which is also made up of the Spanish
Frigate ‘Alvaro de Bazan’, the Spanish transport ship ‘Patino’ and Turkish
frigate Gaziantep is operational in southern Mediterranean being one of the Alliance’s
collective security efforts. The Queen
Marie frigate is part of the military forces Romania has made available for
NATO and has been participating in the SNMG-2 missions for the third time.

(bill)