October 10, 2021 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 10.10.2021, 22:23

Covid-19Ro. 10,400 new cases of coronavirus infection were registered in Romania in the last 24 hours, after more than 43,500 tests were run, the Strategic Communication Group announced on Sunday. Also, 211 related deaths were reported within the same timeframe. According to the source, currently there are 1,603 patients in intensive care, of whom 31 are children. The health situation has rapidly deteriorated in the past couple of weeks. The average of daily infections has been 14 thousand, as compared to 6000 two weeks ago. The number of related deaths has also increased. The rate of infection at national level has exceeded 7, the double of the value reported two weeks before. Currently, 39 counties are in the red zone, and only two, Harghita and Covasna, in central Romania, are in the yellow zone. The value of 6 cases per one thousand inhabitants over 14 days has been exceeded in 98 towns and 483 villages. In Bucharest, the incidence stands at 13.6.

Negotiations. Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis is meeting on Monday with representatives of the parliamentary parties, for a first round of consultations on settling the current governmental crisis. We recall that on Tuesday, the PNl-UDMR Cabinet, headed by the Liberal Florin Citu, was dismissed by Parliament, by adopting a motion of no-confidence filed by the Social-Democratic opposition. The motion was voted by an impressive number of parliamentarians, 281 – out of a total of 467 – representing the Social Democratic Party, the Save Romania Union (former junior partner in the ruling coalition) and the Alliance for the Union of Romanians. As regards the current situation, 81% of the Romanians believe that the country is heading in the wrong direction, as compared to only 12.5% who believe that Romania is on the right track, according to an INSCOP Research survey, conducted in partnership with Verifield, commissioned by the Strategic Thinking Group think-tank. The president of the Strategic Thinking Group, Remus Stefureac, says that the overlapping of three big crises, the pandemic, the economic-social crisis and the political one, is the reason why the public perception has become so pessimistic.

Holocaust Day. The Israeli Minister of Diaspora, Nachman Schai, is visiting Romania. According to the Radio Romania correspondent in Israel, in Bucharest, he will participate, on Monday, in the commemoration ceremony at the Holocaust Memorial. The Minister will meet with members of the Jewish community in Romania, with representatives of the presidential administration, the government and the diplomatic corps. On Saturday, the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, signed a series of decoration decrees on the occasion of the National Day of Commemorating the Holocaust. The decorations were awarded to Holocaust survivors, as a token of special respect for the suffering they endured during World War II, for the high moral standing they showed throughout their lives, and for their efforts to keep alive the memory of the victims of the Holocaust – a tragedy that humanity must never experience again, a communiqué issued by the Presidential Administration reads. This year marks eight decades since the regime of Marshal Ion Antonescu, allied with Nazi Germany, deported the Jews from Bessarabia and Bukovina to Transnistria (east).

Pilgrimage. The biggest Orthodox pilgrimage in Romania and one of the biggest in Europe continues in the eastern town of Iasi at the Saint Parascheva reliquary. The saint, born in the 11 century near Constantinople, has been known as the protector of the Medieval Principality of Moldavia since 1641, when her relics were brought to Iasi by the ruler Vasile Lupu. He received them from the Ecumenical Patriarch, after the Romanian ruler had paid the Patriarchy’s debts to the Ottoman administration. Saint Parascheva is celebrated in Romania on October 14.

Football. Romania’s national football team will play, on Monday evening, in Bucharest, with the Armenian national team, a new match in Group J of the preliminaries of the World Cup in Qatar, next year. On Friday, Romania lost, in Hamburg, with 1-2, the match with the multiple world and European champion Germany, and Armenia ended in a draw the match against Iceland, 1-1. In the same group, also on Friday, the match Liechtenstein – Northern Macedonia was played, 0-4. After seven matches played by each team, Germany is the group leader, with 18 points, followed by Armenia and Northern Macedonia, with 12. The ranking also includes Romania, with 10, Iceland, with 5, and Lichetenstein, with one point. Only the winner of the group goes directly to the final tournament, while the team on the second position will play in the qualifiers. Romania has not participated in a World Cup since the 1998 edition in France.

Rowing. Romania won five gold and one silver medal on Sunday at the European Junior Rowing Championships in Munich. The gold medals were obtained in the following events: women’s pair, men’s pair, women’s four, women’s quadruple sculls, and men’s eight. We recall that last year, the Romanian delegation won seven medals, five gold and two silver, at the European Junior Rowing Championships in Belgrade