December 2, 2020

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 02.12.2020, 13:55

Coronavirus update. The transmission rate of the novel coronavirus
in Romania slowed down last week by almost 10% compared with the previous week.
Over the last 14 days, Bucharest and three other big cities, namely Cluj,
Constanta and Iasi, saw the highest number of new cases. While the number of new
infections dropped, that of people receiving hospital treatment, including in
intensive care, has remained relatively constant. The death toll is also high:
1,154 people died last week, 52 more than the previous week. More than 96% of
those who died had comorbidities. 1 in 62 coronavirus infections were among the
medical personnel. 4,916 new infections and 135 new Covid-related fatalities
were reported on Wednesday, with total number of cases now passing 484,000 and
that the death toll hitting 11,665. The authorities are urging people to
continue to respect the sanitary rules in place.

Elections. A few
days are left of the election campaign ahead of the parliamentary elections on
Sunday. Just like in the local elections at the end of September, the
authorities have imposed restrictions on the number of participants in election
events and strict sanitary rules under which these can take place. Citizens
will be able to exercise their right to vote in all localities currently in
lockdown, with no restrictions in this respect, said prime minister Ludovic
Orban. He explained that people infected with the virus and those who are
isolating will be able to cast their votes via mobile polling stations. The
prime minister made these explanations as a number of towns and villages are in
lockdown in Romania due to spikes in the infection rate. Romanian voters from
abroad will be able to cast their votes over the course of two days, on the 5th
and 6th of December. The Romanian diaspora will be represented in the next
Parliament by four deputies and two senators.

NATO. The Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu is attending a
meeting of NATO foreign ministers to discuss security in the Black Sea region.
The talks, which are held in video-conference format, are looking at the
application of allied decisions with regard to NATO’s adjustment to current
security developments and strategic challenges. In the first working session on
Tuesday, minister Aurescu called for consolidating NATO’s role, reaffirming the central role of the
transatlantic relation based on the principles of cohesion, unity and allied
solidarity, and for revitalising NATO partnerships, including by continuing the
Alliance’s open door policy.

Handball. The Romanian men’s
handball champions Dinamo Bucharest lost to the German side Fuchse Berlin on
Tuesday night away 29:33, in a Group B match as part of the EHF European
League. The return match is scheduled for 8December in Bucharest.
With two points in four matches, Dinamo are in the last but one place in the
6-team group. In women’s handball, the
national side are playing the opening match of the European Championship hosted
by Denmark, facing Germany on Thursday night. The two sides are in Group D,
hosted by the city of Kolding. With many players in quarantine after testing
positive for coronavirus, Romania will next be facing Poland on 5December
and Norway on 7 December. The three
best-ranked sides in the group will qualify for the next stage.

Transmitter. The shortwave stations
in Galbeni, eastern Romania, which transmit Radio Romania International’s
broadcasts, are to undergo scheduled repair works on Thursday, 3 December,
between 09.00 and 17.00 Romanian time (07.00-15.00 GMT). This will affect the station’s Africa
broadcast in English, the Western Europe broadcasts in French and Romanian and
the Maghreb and Mashreq broadcasts in Arabic. You can still tune into these
broadcasts via the shortwave stations in Ţigăneşti and on the Internet, at www.rri.ro, via the download mobile applications available
in Google Play and App Store, via Eutelsat 16A and via your land and mobile
phones. (CM)