A roundup of domestic and international news
COVID-19 IN ROMANIA - The Covid-19 vaccination campaign continues in Romania. Since its start on December 27, more than 1.5 million people have been vaccinated, mostly with Pfizer-BioNTech, but also with Moderna and AstraZeneca. Romania has decided to continue the vaccination with AstraZeneca shots, based on scientific data and the recommendations of the European Medicines Agency, the coordinator of the immunization campaign, Valeriu Gheorghita, has stated. He's said the decision was not easy to make, given that so many European countries have decided to temporarily halt the use of the vaccine as a precautionary measure, following reports of blood clotting in people who got the jab. The third stage of vaccination, for the general population, started on Monday. For the time being, people are vaccinated in the localities where the incidence of cases is higher than 4.5 per one thousand inhabitants. The rest of the population can register for the waiting lists on the electronic platform. More than 6.200 new cases of infection were reported in Romania in the last 24 hours, as well as 89 Covid-19 related deaths. 1,266 people are currently in intensive care.
COVID-19 IN THE WORLD - Several Eastern European countries are faced with the third wave of the pandemic, which puts pressure on health systems again. Hungary has a new hospitalization record for COVID-19 related cases. This country with less than 10 million inhabitants currently has over 9,800 hospitalized people, of whom about 1,000 in intensive care. Bulgaria is the fourth country in the EU with the highest number of deaths reported in the last 14 days, after Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary. The situation is much worse in the Czech Republic, which is the country with the highest number of cases of infection in the EU, ie 15.7 per one thousand inhabitants in the last two weeks. On the other hand, on Tuesday, the European Medicines Agency announced that it remained firmly convinced that the benefits of the anti-COVID-19 vaccine produced by Astra Zeneca outweighed the risks. Several countries have suspended the use of Astra Zeneca after signaling possible side effects. Worldwide, according to worldometers, more than 121 million people have been infected with the new coronavirus. At least 2.6 million people have died and nearly 97 million have been declared cured since the beginning of the pandemic a year ago.
PLAN - Romania's President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday attended a working meeting on the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). Attended by the leaders of the ruling coalition, the meeting agreed on the plan, which represents a chance for Romania's development and carrying out reforms that have been put off for so many years, the president said. The €30 billion provided in the plan will give Romanian economy and society increased resilience in the case of upcoming crises. Previously, the Minister of European Investments and Projects, Cristian Ghinea, said that one of the important components of the plan is fighting poverty. Cristian Ghinea has also mentioned a program for reducing school dropout, which targets 1,600 schools and a bridge scholarship program for high school students, especially those from rural areas. He also spoke about investments to increase Romanians' access to the health system, including the construction of new hospitals and the modernization of existing ones.
GOVERNMENT - The Romanian Government on Wednesday debated the draft law banning cumulated pension-salary incomes, put up for public debate by the Ministry of Labor. According to the labour ministry, pensioners in the public system will be able to choose to continue working until the age of 70, during which time the payment of the pension will be suspended. Labor Minister Raluca Turcan said some 35,000 pensioners who are currently also receiving state-paid salaries must choose between one of the two within 30 days of the law taking effect. Exempted from this law will be people with certain categories of income, such as hourly pay or copyrights. Under the draft law, members of the Romanian Academy, Member of Parliament or workers in the local administration will also be exempted from this law.
SEA SHIELD 21 - Over 2,400 military from eight countries, 18 battleships and 10 aircraft are taking part over March 19-29 in "Sea Shield 21", the largest multinational NATO exercise hosted by the Romanian Naval Forces in 2021 in the Black Sea area. According to the Romanian Ministry of Defense, navy forces from Bulgaria, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, the United States and Turkey are taking part in drills overseen by Fleet Command. The purpose of Sea Shield 21 is to verify and consolidate the level of interoperability and cooperation between the Romanian Naval Forces and the other branches of the Romanian Army, various structures within the Interior Ministry and allied naval forces. The exercises will cover every stage of a standard NATO maritime response to a geopolitical crisis in the region and is aimed at proving the Romanian Army's constant commitment to strengthening NATO's maritime posture against a volatile security context. After the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 by the Russian Federation, the Romanian Naval Forces recommended the introduction of this tactical exercise on NATO's agenda of collective defense training, in order to develop the interoperability of all its combat forces (maritime, underwater, land and air). The first edition of Sea Shield was held in 2015. Over the following years its agenda was adapted to provide a swift and effective response to a whole array of threats to maritime security and stability in the region.
BUDGETS - Parliament's budget and finance committees on Wednesday issued a negative opinion for the activity reports of the public TV and radio broadcasters in 2018 and 2019. Ruling coalition MPs voted for a negative opinion, while Social-Democrats and AUR MPs in opposition voted against. After getting the committee's opinion, the reports will be submitted to Parliament's culture committee, which must draft a report of its own, which in turn will be submitted for debate and vote in Parliament's plenary sitting. Should Parliament reject the two institutions' activity reports, their management will be sacked. (M.I. & V.P.)
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