December 25, 2020

Orthodox-majority Romania celebrates Christmas./ First batches of Covid vaccine arrive today./ EU ambassadors receive briefing on EU-UK trade deal.

Newsroom, 25.12.2020, 13:48

Christmas. Christmas is being celebrated in the
Christian world, including majority-Orthodox Romania, a holiday marking the
birth of Jesus. In these times of pandemic, we must show solidarity and support
those in need, urged the head of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Daniel
in his Christmas message. He said that as it struggles with the novel coronavirus,
mankind is going through difficult times, with people’s health and lives in
danger. The patriarch urged people to pray more and show solidarity. At the
Vatican, the Christmas mass is held amid restrictions, as Italy imposes
four-day red zone measures around the country. For the first time, the
Christmas message and the Urbi et Orbi blessing are delivered by the pope from
the Hall of Blessings in the Apostolic Palace instead of from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica in front of thousands of faithful.
The Vatican is trying to shield 84-year-old Pope Francis as two cardinals in
his entourage tested positive for
coronavirus in recent days.

Vaccine. Romania saw more than 3,800 new coronavirus cases and 111 new related
deaths on Friday. The total number of infections now passes 612,000 and the
death toll is in excess of 15,000. 1,233 Covid patients are in intensive care. Nearly
85% of the people infected since the start of the outbreak have recovered. The first batch of 10,000 dozes of
anti-Covid vaccine arrived in Romania today, with the immunisation of
the staff working in Romania’s ten Covid care hospitals to begin on Sunday. The
College of Physicians has advised the population to agree to vaccination, which
it sees as the best solution to fight the virus at the moment. After a meeting
with the pandemic task force, president Klaus Iohannis said no further
restrictions would be introduced for the Christmas holidays and called on
people to respect those in force. Prime minister Florin
Cîţu emphasised said this period can be overcome by showing solidarity.

Coronavirus world. Globally, there are over 79.8
million confirmed coronavirus cases and some 1.7 million related fatalities.
The United States hit 19 million cases and its death toll is nearing 340,000. In
Europe, many countries have imposed restrictions for the winter holidays.
Germany has limited private gatherings to family members until Saturday, and The
Netherlands is in lockdown until mid January. Italy has extended harsher
red-zone measures to the entire country. In the UK, the discovery of a new
variant of the virus has left the country isolated, with tens of countries
closing their borders to arrivals from the UK.

Brexit. EU ambassadors are attending a briefing on Christmas
day to start assessing the post-Brexit trade deal agreed by the European Union
and the UK. The EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier is briefing diplomats on the
content of the deal reached after months of talks. The most contentious point was the access of EU fishing boats to UK waters. The European
Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said this is a fair and balanced
deal, while British prime minister Boris Johnson described it as a good deal
for the whole of Europe. The UK officially left the European Union at the end
of January 2020, but remained a member of the EU single market and customs
union until the transition period expired at the end of the year. A no-deal
Brexit would have led to high customs duties and other trade barriers with a
strong negative impact on the economy and the distribution networks. (CM)