July 19, 2021 UPDATE

Newsroom, 19.07.2021, 20:12

WEATHER Weather in Romania
will continue to be hot and unstable. Yellow and orange-code alerts for heavy
rainfall are in place across the country, with unstable weather expected until
at least midweek. Temperatures will drop a bit, but the level of thermal
discomfort will remain high. Thunderstorms will first hit the south-west, west,
centre and north of the country, to then cover the south and south-east
beginning on Tuesday. The extreme
weather has caused major damages in the west of the country over the past few
days, with several parts of Alba County affected by flash floods.

FLOODING The death toll of
the disastrous flooding in Western Europe nears 200, as many missing people are
found dead. Germany reports the largest number of victims. Chancellor Angela
Merkel has visited some of the worst hit regions, and promised immediate aid
from the federal government for reconstruction works, while also pledging more
efforts to fight climate change. The EU has announced it would provide aid both
to Germany and to the other countries affected by floods, such as Belgium and
the Netherlands. In Belgium, more than 30 people are dead and others are
missing. Italy also sees heavy rainfalls causing floods in the northern and
southern parts of the country.

COVID-19 The Romanian
health minister Ioana Mihăilă has stated that the 4th wave of the Covid-19
pandemic will affect unvaccinated people, and said less than 1% of those who
have got the vaccine caught the disease. Ioana Mihăilă urged even those who
recovered from the disease to get the vaccine, arguing that this would prevent
a severe form of the Covid-19, even when the Delta variant is involved. In
spite of continuing public campaigns promoting vaccination, the target of 5
million fully vaccinated Romanians is yet to be reached. Meanwhile, 46 new infection cases
were reported on Monday afternoon, out of close to 11,000 tests. 269 Covid-19
patients are currently in hospital, of whom 33 in intensive care.

PANDEMIC Greece
reintroduces COVID-19 restrictions in spite of the tourist season being in full
swing. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent in Athens, several Greek
islands deemed free of COVID-19 are introducing night curfews and banning the
access of unvaccinated people in restaurants and clubs. The Greek government
will also make vaccination compulsory for several categories of employees.
France tightens access restrictions for travelers from certain countries,
including the UK, Spain, Greece and the Netherlands, who will be required to
get tested 24 hours prior to arriving in the country. On the other hand,
England lifted all restrictions on Monday, in spite of an alarming increse in
the number of Delta variant infections. London argues that containment measures
cannot be kept in place forever, and the vaccines provide protection.

AVIATION DAY. The Romanian
Minister of Defense, Nicolae Ciuca, and the Chief of the Defense Staff,
Lieutenant General Daniel Petrescu, will participate, on Tuesday, in the
military ceremony organized on the occasion of the Romanian Aviation and Air
Force Day at the Air Heroes Monument in downtown Bucharest, the Ministry of
Defense has announced. During the ceremony, wreaths will be laid in memory of
the aviator heroes, and the 74th PATRIOT Regiment – the tactical combat unit
established on December 1, 2018, whose mission is to render operational the
PATRIOT surface-to-air missile system – will be handed the Battle Flag .
According to the Ministry of National Defense, this ceremony pays homage to
the memory of the heroes who, on the battlefields or in missions carried out in
theaters of operations or on the national territory, served with devotion the
wings of the homeland and joined the heaven’s squadron. The Day of the
Romanian Aviation and Air Force is celebrated, every year, on July 20, when the
Holy Prophet Elijah, the spiritual protector of the pilots, is also celebrated.

FORESTS. Romania has joined ten other European countries, including Germany, Austria and Hungary, which have called for a debate on Brussels’ new forest management strategy before the document is officially signed by the European Commission. The Romanian Minister of Environment, Tanczos Barna, explained that, until now, the member states could only consult a draft of the strategy and that the final version should take into account the opinions of each country. He also said that on Tuesday he will have a bilateral meeting with Virginijus Sinkevicius, THE European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries and will approach this issue. However, the European Commission has stated that the new strategy for the protection and restoration of EU forests, adopted on 16 July, emerged from a public consultation in all Member States. Austria was the country that first decided to challenge the European forest strategy. In recent years, Romania has faced massive deforestation. Based on the new European strategy, it will be monitored, together with Bulgaria, Finland and Sweden, on the protection of old and primary forests.

FESTIVAL Tickets for the
25th George Enescu International Festival are available as of Monday. The
festival, scheduled to take place between 28 August and 26 September, will
bring to Bucharest 3,500 Romanian and foreign artists. Healthcare measures will
be in place this year, to protect the public, the artists, the organisers and
journalists. Some of the world’s most celebrated orchestras, including the
London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Academy of St
Martin in the Fields, the National Orchestra of France conducted by the
Romanian Cristian Măcelaru, and the Munich Philharmonic conducted by Valery
Gergiev, will take part in this year’s festival, alongside world-famous
soloists like violinists Maxim Vengerov, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Joshua Bell,
cellist Alisa Weilerstein and pianists Denis Matsuev, Jean Yves Thibaudet and
Kirill Gerstein. (MI)