January 9, 2021 UPDATE

DECISION The government in Bucharest is expected to pass an emergency ordinance to grant additional money to the medical personnel involved in the anti-Covid National Vaccination Campaign. Under the draft, physicians are to receive 20 Euros per hour and nurses 10, Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu said. Family physicians are also going to get more money as they are considered an essential pillar in the immunization campaign. Roughly 100 thousand people have been immunized since the onset of the campaign; out of these only 314 reported minor side effects. The latest report provided by the Strategic Communication Group indicates 44 hundred new infections in the past 24 hours in Romania and 86 people died, bringing the death toll since the onset of the pandemic to roughly 16,600. 11 hundred people are in intensive care. Nearly 670 thousand people have been infected in Romania since the beginning of the pandemic and 90% of them have been cured. The number of the Romanian nationals infected abroad is 7145, and the death toll stays at 132.

HANDBALL Romania's vice-champions in women's handball, CSM Bucharest lost to Hungarian side Ferencvaros Budapest 31-27 their first match counting towards the Champions League Group A. The first game went to the Romanians 25-19. CSM ranks second in the group with 11 points whereas Ferencvaros comes fourth with 8. On Sunday in the Champions League's Group B, Romanian champions, SCM Ramnicu Valcea are taking on another Hungarian side, Gyor, in a home match. Another Romanian side Minaur Baia Mare on Saturday clinched a 33-29 win against the Norwegians from Storhamar Handball Elite. Dunarea Braila also from Romania will be up against French side Fleury Loiret on Sunday. 

LIST Bucharest has updated its list of high risk countries for Covid infection whose citizens must comply with the latest quarantine measures. The new provisions are in force starting January 9th. The list comprises 40 countries, including Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany, France and the neighboring Republic of Moldova, whose citizens must be quarantined for two weeks after their arrival. Those who stay in Romania less than three days and can produce a negative test do not have to go into isolation. Those who want to stay more can take a test in their 8th day and can get out of quarantine in the 10th day of their stay. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Romania, all the people coming to Germany from the risk areas must produce a negative RT-PCR test for the SARS-CoV-2 virus or take such a test in Germany, shortly after their arrival.

REPATRIATION The Romanian sailor kidnapped from the Agisilaos ship off the shores of Togo has been released and is to be repatriated in the following days, the Foreign Ministry in Bucharest announced on Saturday. According to the same sources, in order to settle the incident, the Crisis Management Cell set up on this occasion, has taken a lot of action working jointly with the company which hired the Romanian and other international partners. On November 30th 2020, sources with the Foreign Ministry in Bucharest announced that Minister Aurescu had summoned an inter-institutional crisis management cell to address the incident in Togo involving the Agisilaos, where several sailors, including a Romanian citizen, had been kidnapped. 

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