November 3, 2021 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 03.11.2021, 20:07
COVID-19 Authorities in Romania on Wednesday reported 10,196 Covid infections in
the past 24 hours. 451 Romanians have died and over 19 thousand are being
treated in hospitals, 1890 of whom in ICUs. Bucharest has an infection rate of
12.89 per thousand and this rate has been going down for the past 12 days from
the peak of 16.54 reached on October 22. According to the authorities, although
the number of infections is on a downward trend, the country’s medical system
is to remain under pressure for at least two weeks. The WHO crisis manager for
Romania, Heather Papowitz has recommended the authorities to come up with an
action plan to put an end to the pandemic with clear elements and goals adding
that vaccination is the only solution.
GOVERNMENT The National Liberal Party (PNL), number one in the interim government
in Bucharest on Wednesday kicked off talks with two parties in an attempt to
forge a Parliament majority. After this round of talks with USR, a former
ruling partner, Liberal president Florin Citu said there are chances to rebuild
the right wing coalition that ruled Romania after the election. He said the
latest round of talks focused on the principles and the programme of ruling. In
turn USR leader, Dacian Cilos said that he felt there are opportunities for
rebuilding the coalition but that he is waiting for a clear answer from the
Liberals. The PNL is going to hold talks with the Social Democrats (PSD) the
largest Parliamentarian group on Thursday, as they are considering the idea of
joining the ruling coalition. Talks are underway after the liberal leadership
has opted for a more flexible negotiation process as the Prime Minister
designate Nicolae Ciuca failed to muster support for a minority PNL-UDMR
cabinet and had to step down.
AID The difficult situation hospitals in Romania are presently
in has prompted many countries to come to their assistance. On Tuesday, Israel
sent in ten oxygen concentrators, the first in a batch of 40. The devices will
be distributed to medical units that treat Covid patients. According to Radio
Romania correspondent to Jerusalem, Dragos Ciocarlan, Israel is going to
dispatch a team of IC experts for Covid-19 to help the medical personnel in
Romania. Romania has also received support consisting of medicines, equipment
and medical staff from European countries like the Netherlands, Poland, Italy,
Denmark and the Republic of Moldova. Patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, who
were in a critical condition, were transferred to medical units in Germany for
treatment. Both Austria and Hungary have taken over patients to be cared for in
their hospitals. 22 of these have died and 7 have already left hospitals.
REACTORS Romania will be the first
country in the world where the US is going to implement the technology of small
modular nuclear reactors. The Romanian president, Klaus Iohannis, and the United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, established, on Tuesday evening, at the climate
summit in Scotland that, by 2028, Romania should include this type of reactors
in the national energy production system. A White House statement writes that
this collaboration will create up to 30,000 jobs in the two countries.
President Iohannis underlined that this type of cooperation on several levels -
development of technologies, production, services – must be extended to other
areas as well. He also pointed out that this close collaboration in the field
of climate change will add to the successful cooperation between Romania and
the US in many other sectors and will contribute to the consolidation of the
Strategic Bilateral Partnership.
(bill)
