February 9, 2021 UPDATE

A news update

Newsroom, 09.02.2021, 19:52

Budget bill – The state budget for 2021 has been finalized and will be made public on Wednesday. The budget is based on a 7% deficit of the GDP. The Government plans to cut back on spending in order to reach this target. Consequently, holiday vouchers will be slashed this year as well as 30% of the political parties’ funding, while inefficient state companies will no longer be subsidized. Pensions will not be raised starting January 1, 2022. Child allowances will not be raised this year either. The budget bill may be passed by the Government next week and is likely to be endorsed by Parliament by February 20.

Vaccination — Registration for vaccination against COVID-19 will be resumed on Wednesday for all categories included in the second stage, after it had been limited to vulnerable categories for a certain period of time. Dr. Valeriu Gheorghiță, the chairman of the National Committee for Coordination of Activities on Vaccination against COVID-19, announced that so far, Romania has received a total of over 1.2 million vaccine doses from Pfizer, Moderna and Astra Zeneca. More than 667,000 people have been vaccinated, most with Pfizer vaccines. A new tranche of more than 128,000 doses of this vaccine arrived in Bucharest on Tuesday and the vaccines are currently being distributed throughout the country. According to the delivery schedule, the next tranche will arrive on February 15. Vaccines from Moderna have also been given to people in Romania for a week already. At the same time, the first tranche of the AstraZeneca vaccine was distributed in the country, which will be given only to people between 18 and 55 years old. On the other hand, almost 2,800 new cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection have been reported in the last 24 hours in Romania. The total number of contaminations is nearing 750,000, with the death toll exceeding 19,000. Almost one thousand people are in ICUs.

Brussels – The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, recommended on Tuesday, in Brussels, the adoption of new sanctions against Kremlin, after the affront of the Russian foreign minister during his visit to Moscow, and announced his intention to make proposals in this regard to the member states, France Press reports. The official is to present his proposals to the EU foreign ministers at the February 22 meeting. On Friday, Russia expelled three diplomats from Germany, Sweden and Poland for allegedly participating in support rallies for the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The announcement was made while the EU foreign policy chief was on an official visit to Moscow. He claims he learnt from social media about the expulsion of the European diplomats, while he was having talks with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. We recall that, upon his recent return from Germany, where he was treated for poisoning, the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was arrested and sentenced to prison in Russia. He is to serve a sentence of two years and eight months.

COVID-19 world — World Health Organization officials have warned against the excessive pessimism over the AstraZeneca vaccine in the context in which the top priority is to limit hospitalizations and save lives. The efficiency of this vaccine, which has not yet obtained the WHO approval, but has still been green-lighted by the health authorities from several countries, has been doubted by people over 65. South Africa has indicated the possibility of a limited ‘efficiency’ of the AstraZeneca vaccine for the local virus variant, which is considered more contagious. Meanwhile, in the EU, Spain decided on Tuesday to extend, by March 2, the restrictions for flights coming from the UK, Brazil and South Africa, for fear of the new variants of the novel coronavirus. Also on Tuesday, the Swedish government announced a plan to reduce the number of passengers for long-haul train and bus travel, as part of the measures taken to limit the pandemic. In another development, the issue of lifting travel restrictions for the people who have been vaccinated is still controversial, and the 27 member states are working on a common vaccination certificate. Israel and Greece have reached an agreement on tourism which will allow the two countries’ citizens who have been vaccinated to travel freely between the two countries.

MAE – The Romanian Foreign Ministry – MAE informs the Romanian citizens who are transiting or intend to travel to Spain that the State Meteorological Agency has issued code orange and yellow alerts for storm, snowfalls, wind or blizzard for some areas of the country. At the same time, the Romanian Foreign Ministry informs that the Italian Civil Protection Service also issued a code orange alert for precipitations, wind, lightning and hail, as well as a code yellow alert for heavy rainfalls and wind for several regions of the Peninsula, valid on Tuesday and Wednesday. MAE recommends Romanian citizens to constantly consult the public information provided by the Spanish and Italian authorities and to strictly follow their recommendations. Romanians traveling abroad have at their disposal, on the MAE page, the application Travel safely which provides information and travel advice. (tr. L. Simion)