April 23, 2021

COVID-19 The way out of the COVID-19 pandemic is mass vaccination, the president of Romania Klaus Iohannis said today. He added that containment measures will be eased out as the number of SARS-CoV-2 infections, of patients in ICUs and of COVID-related deaths decreases. Yesterday, at the end of the first meeting of an inter-ministry committee working to ensure Romania’s return to normal as of June 1, PM Florin Cîțu said in his turn that the return to normal life is conditional on vaccination. The number of people who have received at least one vaccine dose in Romania is now over 2.8 million. Meanwhile, the authorities announced on Friday over 2,500 new infections in 24 hours, and 170 COVID-related deaths. Another 1,391 patients are in intensive care. Three counties in Romania, Bucharest, Ilfov in the south-east and Cluj in the centre, are still in the red zone, with little over 4 COVID cases per thousand inhabitants, while the other counties report rates below 3 per thousand.

MEETING The Romania-Poland-Turkey trilateral meeting works very well, and its relevance and effectiveness have grown significantly, contributing in its 9 years of existence, to strengthening the North-Atlantic Alliance and to ensuring security in the eastern flank, including the Black Sea region, the Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu said. The Romanian official took part on Friday in the plenary session of the meeting, alongside his counterparts from Poland, Zbigniew Rau and Turkey, Mevlut Cavuşoglu. At the end of the meeting, the 3 foreign ministers signed a joint declaration, for the first time since the trilateral meeting has been held. Today the participants tackled security-related topics, with a focus on the regional situation, on the outcomes of the latest NATO minister-level meetings and on the prospects for this year’s summit of the Alliance. The 3 countries’ officials emphasised on Friday that they would like NATO to be a stronger political and military actor, with global reach.  The participants also discussed the progress in implementing the projects selected in the 2020 trilateral meeting and the ways to strengthen trilateral dialogue, including by developing new projects.

ECONOMY All EU member countries ended the year 2020 with budget deficit. According to Eurostat, Romania was among the states with the highest deficit figures, 9.2% of GDP, double the level reported the previous year. Eurostat preliminary data point to a skyrocketing budget deficit EU-wide, from 0.5% of GDP in 2019 to 6.9% last year. The highest levels, ranging between 11% and 9.5%, were reported in Spain, Malta, Greece, Italy, Belgium and France. Denmark is the only country that reported budget deficit below 3%.

PANDEMIC Greece, one of Romanians’ summer holiday destinations of choice, was included by the Romanian authorities in the list of countries with high epidemic risk, due to the large number of coronavirus infections. The list now comprises 60 countries and regions. Alongside Greece, it also includes Turkey, Bulgaria, the Maldives, France, Italy, Austria, Germany and the US. Travellers returning from these countries must produce a negative COVID test before boarding the plane or coach. People having tested negative will still isolate for 10 days upon arrival. The measure does not apply for travellers having received both vaccine doses, or having recovered from the disease in the past 90 days. The total number of coronavirus infections is now over 145 million worldwide, with more than 123 million patients recovered and some 3 million deaths reported by worldometers.info. In Germany, a controversial law takes effect today, which grants more powers to the federal government. Italy has in turn extended the state of emergency until the end of July. France is lifting part of the restrictions as of 3 May, with children returning to schools, but with night curfews still in place.

TENNIS Romanian player Simona Halep, seed no 2 in the WTA tournament in Stuttgart (Germany), plays today against Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova in the quarter-finals of the competition. On Thursday in the round of 16, Alexandrova defeated the Swiss Belinda Bencic 6-1, 7-5, whereas Halep beat the Czech Marketa Vondrousova 6-1, 6-3. Simona Halep and Ekaterina Alexandrova have played against each other 3 times so far, with the Russian winning 2 of the matches. Two other Romanian players, Sorana Cirstea and Ana Bogdan, take on Russia’s  Veronika Kudermetova and Belgium’s Fiona Ferro, respectively, in the quarter-finals of the Istanbul tournament. (tr. A.M. Popescu)