April 26, 2021

Vaccination. Romania receives, today, the largest batch of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, more than 725 thousand doses, the National Committee for the Coordination of Vaccination Activities has announced. Also today, about 41 thousand doses of AstraZeneca vaccines are expected to arrive. Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign, on December 27, 2020, almost 5 million doses of vaccine have been administered to more than 3 million people. Of these, about 1.8 million received both doses. On the other hand, Bucharest still has 3.68 cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection per thousand inhabitants. The counties of Ilfov (southeast) and Cluj (northwest) have reported similar rates. The Strategic Communication Group announced just over 1,500 new cases of infection in 24 hours. 1,358 people are hospitalized in Intensive Care and 127 people have died from Covid-19 in the same period.

Pandemic. Nearly 148 million people have been infected with the new coronavirus in the world since the beginning of the pandemic - according to worldometers.info. More than 125 million people have recovered and 3.1 million have died from the infection. More and more European countries are easing restrictions as vaccination programs begin to show results. In Italy, 14 regions have today entered the yellow scenario, which allows the reopening of restaurants, theaters and cinemas. Only Sardinia remains in the red zone, with the most severe anti-COVID restrictions still in place. In Belgium, beauty shops and stores are allowed to open. In France, schools will be reopened as of next week. In Berlin, a so-called vaccination summit is scheduled between the state leadership and the federal government, to discuss the suspension or partial lifting of restrictions. Greece is today lifting quarantine restrictions for tourists coming from several countries as Greek authorities prepare for the official opening of the summer seasons on May 15.

Recovery Plan. President Klaus Iohannis has a working meeting today in Bucharest on the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) with Prime Minister Florin Cîţu, Chamber of Deputies President Ludovic Orban, Deputy Prime Ministers Dan Barna and Kelemen Hunor and the Minister of Investments and European Projects, Cristian Ghinea, the Presidential Administration has announced. Last week, the head of state announced that he had convened this meeting with government officials working on the Plan. The government is due to make some changes to the plan, before officially presenting it to the European Commission, after the EU executive said that the amounts provided for infrastructure were too high and that it would not agree with the financing of irrigation systems. The head of state believes that the document can be improved and accepted by the European Commission. The document should be submitted  to the EC by the end of April, for Romania to benefit from over 30 billion Euros for development. President Iohannis has specified that the deadline set for the completion of the plan is indicative, not final. According to the opposition Social Democratic Party, the rejection of the document is a failure of the current government. The party's president, Marcel Ciolacu, insists that the National Recovery and Resilience Plan be debated transparently in Parliament.

Diplomacy. The Romanian authorities have decided to declare the deputy military attaché of the Russian Embassy in Bucharest, Alexey Grishaev, persona non grata on Romanian territory. According to a communiqué of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the decision was taken considering that "his activities and actions contravene the provisions of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations ". Also according to the Romanian MFA, these elements were communicated to the Russian side, when the Ambassador of the Russian Federation in Bucharest Valery Kuzmin was summoned at the ministry's headquarters, at the request of the Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu.  

Moldova. The statement approved on Friday in the Chisinau Parliament, according to which the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova allegedly 'usurps' power in the state, shows contempt for the Court's independence, said Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu. He criticized the attempt of the pro-Russian majority in the Parliament to change the composition of the Constitutional Court, an approach which, he said, shows the importance that must continue to be given to the rule of law in the Republic of Moldova. The action of the Socialists and their allies from the Shor party comes after the reformist president of the republic, Maia Sandu, announced that she would soon sign the decree to dissolve the parliament, following the Court's opinion and would announce the date of the early parliamentary elections. EU officials and the US ambassador to Chisinau described Friday's vote as a violation of the separation of powers in the state.

Car scrapping. The Rabla Clasic and Rabla Plus car scrapping programs, for the renewal of the Romanian car fleet, can be accessed starting today. Rabla Clasic has a budget of 440 million lei (about 88 million euros), higher than last year, which will allow the purchase of over 55,000 new, less polluting vehicles. At the same time, the Rabla Plus program, intended for the purchase of electric cars, benefits from a budget of 400 million lei (approximately 80 million euros), through which premiums of 10,000 euros will be granted for 'full electric' and about 4,500 euro for plug-in hybrid cars, but not more than half the value of the new vehicle. Based on the budget allocated this year, Rabla Plus will facilitate the purchase of up to 6,600 electric cars and approximately 5,000 plug-in hybrid cars.

Oscars. 'Nomadland' was the big winner of the 93rd Academy Awards, winning the 'Best Picture', 'Best Director' (Chloe Zhao) and 'Best Best Supporting Actress' (Frances McDormand) awards. The event, held on Sunday night in Los Angeles, hosted numerous firsts, as well as the return to the physical format of the glamorous ceremonies in Hollywood after a long break caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reports. The list of big winners was completed by the legendary Anthony Hopkins, who at the age of 83 won the second Oscar of his career for the lead role in "The Father." The award for "Best Documentary" was won by the feature film "My Octopus Teacher "and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film went to the Danish film "Another Round". The film directed by Alexandru Nanau, "Collective", did not win any awards but it is the first Romanian production to have been nominated in two categories of the prestigious competition: "best documentary" and "best foreign film". 

Tennis. Romanian tennis player Sorana Cirstea (No. 67 in the world) won the WTA tournament in Istanbul, with 235,238 dollars in prize money. She defeated the Belgian Elise Mertens 6-2, 7-6 in Sunday's final. In addition to the two titles won in Tashkent (2008) and Istanbul (2021), Sorana Cirstea also played in three singles finals, in Budapest (2007), Toronto (2013) and Tashkent (2019). Last year, the title in Istanbul was won by another Romanian, Patricia Ţig. (MI)