February 21, 2021
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 21.02.2021, 14:00
VACCINE Another 2,419 Covid-19 infections have been reported
in Romania on Sunday after 16,645 tests have been carried out, which brings the
infection rate to 14.5%, the Strategic Communication Group has announced. 52
have died from Covid-related issues in the past 24 hours bringing the death
toll to 19,800. On the other hand, Romania’s immunization campaign is in full
swing and according to the National Committee for Vaccination Coordination, the
total number of doses administered, since its beginning in late December has
exceeded 1.3 million with eight hundred thousand people immunized. Most of the
vaccines used in this campaign have been developed mainly by Pfizer and
Moderna. The vaccine produced by AstraZeneca
started being used in Romania this week. Over 777 thousand people have been
infected by the novel Coronavirus in Romania since the outbreak and 90% of them
have been cured.
BUDGET Romania’s Liberal Prime Minister Florin Citu has voiced hope that
Parliament will be adopting the country’s yearly budget as soon as possible. He
reiterated that the possible amendments the MPs are going to table must not
exceed the proposed deficit and they must be accompanied by funding resources.
The government in Bucharest on Friday adopted the state budget and that of
social securities for this year as well as the fiscal-budgetary strategy for
the period 2021-2023. The budget has been designed for a deficit of 7.16% of
the GDP. The annual inflation rate must be kept at 2.4% and the average monthly
pay around 680 Euros. In another development, the country’s Higher Defence
Council, CSAT has endorsed the budgets for the institutions involved in
national security and defence.
SUPPORT Romania provides support to the
Slovakian authorities in their efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. A team
of five physicians and nine nurses is ready to be deployed and help the medical
authorities in Bratislava. According to a government communiqué, the team is
accompanied by two representatives of the General Inspectorate of Emergency
Situations. The 21-day mission is ready to begin and the team is waiting for
the green light from the Health Ministry in Slovakia. The operation has been
funded by the European Commission through its ESI programme aimed at providing
emergency assistance on the EU territory.
PROTESTS Roughly 100 miners from the
Lupeni Mine in southern Romania are continuing their protests against the
authorities’ failure to pay them in due time. The protesters have received food
and water from their families and Red Cross volunteers. Their colleagues in
other mining centers have showed support for the protest in Lupeni, which
stopped the functioning of a power plant in the region leaving around 5
thousand apartments without heat and prompted schools in the region to limit
themselves to online courses. Representatives of the Romanian students staged
protests in Bucharest on Saturday against the cancellation of travel subsidies
for students. According to them, the government’s austerity measures are
dealing a heavy blow to the most vulnerable categories and that the government
is sacrificing the students’ mobility for political games.
(bill)
