CHRISTMAS The Western rite Orthodox
believers, the Greek Catholics and Catholics from the world over, including
from Romania, a country with an Orthodox majority, on Saturday celebrate
Christmas, the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Today is the Christmas Eve, and
people all over the country go caroling or get ready to receive carolers, who
are a symbol for the angels and shepherds who first witnessed Christ’s birth in
Bethlehem. Christmas is marked through special religious sermons in churches
and monasteries but also through beautiful traditions and rich meals in the
family. Old ritualists, who are a majority in Russia, Ukraine, Serbia and
Georgia are celebrating Christmas on January 7th.
COVID-19 The fifth wave of the pandemic, which is most severe as compared to
the fourth wave is expected to arrive in Romania in less than three weeks, the
country’s Interior Minister Lucian Bode has announced. The spread of the
Omicron variant will be accelerated by the Romanian workers from abroad, who
are to arrive in large numbers for the winter holidays. The number of the new
infections is still low in Romania with 717 new cases announced on Friday. 44
related fatalities have also been announced. Since the beginning of the
pandemic, 1.8 million Covid infections have been reported in Romania and 58
thousand related fatalities. Shortly after the authorization in the USA of the
anti-Covid drug, Paxlovid, Romania’s health minister, Alexandru Rafila is
making moves to import the new drug as soon as possible. Rafila has already had
a series of meetings with representatives of Pfizer, the company that produces
the vaccine. According to the latest surveys, the drug reduces by almost 90%
the risk of hospitalization and death. The US has also authorized an anti-viral
pill produced by Merck.
LIST
The National Committee for
Emergency Situations has updated the list of the countries with a high
infection risk. Malta entered the red tier due to its high infection rate, whereas
Romania’s neighbour, the ex-soviet Republic of Moldova has become part of the
green tier. The committee has also approved a series of employees who are
exempted from the quarantine rules, and these are: the crew members of various
ships sailing under the Romanian flag, as well as several categories of drivers
on freighters up to 2.4 tons and passenger buses over 9 seats coming from the
EU or the EU economic area.
POLICE Over eight thousand policemen are on duty
during this mini Christmas holiday in Romania to discourage and prevent any crime.
Policemen will be patrolling together with gendarme troops and in some cases
they will be accompanied by representatives of the Food Safety Authority to various
shopping areas to check on the observance of the prevention rules for the
Covid-19 pandemic. Road police will be assisted by helicopters in an attempt to
monitor the traffic and prevent any wrongdoing on Romania’s motorways. These
structures are going to check the observance of legal rules by a series of
retailers selling food products as well as by companies involved in money
transport activities.
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