COVID-19 Romania has a ‘window of opportunity’ of at least 6 weeks to get ready
for the moment in which the highly-contagious Delta variant is going to rise
significantly and create problems, says Andrei Baciu, secretary of state with
the Health Ministry in Bucharest. Authorities in Romania are presently targeting
the country’s rural areas to step up the vaccine rollout. According to Baciu,
no significant vaccination initiatives have been carried out in 25-30 % of
Romania’s communes and villages. The number of infections with the novel
coronavirus remains low in Romania amid fears of the highly-contagious Delta
variant, which the authorities believe will become dominant this autumn. In
spite of the sustained pro-vaccination campaigns, the threshold of 5 million
fully-vaccinated Romanians has not been reached yet, a month and a half after
the term initially set by the authorities.
FILM
La Civil, a Romanian-Belgian-Mexican production directed by Romanian Teodora
Ana Mihai last night was awarded Prix de L’Audace of the Un certain regard section
of the 74th edition of the Film festival in Cannes. Among its
producers are the famous Romanian director Cristian Mungiu and the Belgian
brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne. The film tells the story of Cielo, a
Mexican mother searching for her daughter who has been abducted by members of a
drug cartel. As the local authorities fail to help her, Cielo takes things into
her own hands and gradually turns from housewife into an avenging activist.
Russian filmmaker Kira Kovalenko has got the top prize in ‘Un certain regard’
for her movie ‘Unclenching the Fists’.
FLOODS The death toll from devastating floods across parts of Western Germany have
today risen to 130, while more than one thousand people are still unaccounted
for. Germany and Belgium have for several days been affected by unprecedented
torrential rains, which damaged several towns and villages. The most affected
region is Rhineland-Palatinate where the police believe the death toll could
get higher. About 700 residents were evacuated last night after a dam burst
near Cologne. Water levels remain high in many localities sweeping away cars
and making houses to collapse in the worst natural disaster to have struck Germany
in the past 50 years. Entire communities have been stranded and left without
electricity and communications. A death toll of 20 has prompted the Belgian government
to declare a day of national mourning. Torrential rains have also affected the
Netherlands and Luxembourg.
HOMAGE Seven years on from the MH-17 aviation disaster, the Romanian Foreign
Ministry is paying homage to the 298 people on board, including a Romanian
citizen, who lost their lives in the incident. Romania believes the culprits
must be brought to court and hails the criminal procedures underway in the
Netherlands, under the Dutch legislation. We recall the MH-17 aircraft
belonging to Malaysia Airlines, was shot down over eastern Ukraine while flying
from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. Dutch prosecutors launched criminal proceedings
against four suspects in June 2020 and started to investigate evidence a year
later.
(bill)
