Covid-19 Ro – In Bucharest, the National Committee for Emergency Situations decided that the Romanian citizens or citizens from the EU and Switzerland, who come from southern African countries, where the new, more contagious strain of the noel coronavirus emerged, will be quarantined, regardless of whether they are vaccinated or not. They can be released from quarantine after 10 days if the Covid-test-result is negative. The authorities have also updated the list of countries/territories with a high epidemiological risk which now also includes Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The access on the Romanian territory of the non-EU foreigners arriving from the mentioned countries has been forbidden. On the other hand, 1,727 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the last 24 hours in Romania, and 180 deaths, of which 19 were registered prior to the reference period. Only four counties are still in the red scenario. The COVID-19 incidence rate calculated for a period of 14 days for Bucharest dropped to 2.26 cases per thousand inhabitants. As for the vaccination campaign, since its start in December, about 7.35 million people have been fully vaccinated.
COVID world — The World Health Organization has labeled the new coronavirus variant from Africa, called Omicron, a ‘variant of concern’. The variant has a large number of mutations and could be even more contagious than the Delta variant. More and more states have decided to close their borders to people in southern Africa. Restrictions have been announced by the US, Canada, Turkey, as well as by some EU member states. The President of the EC, Ursula von der Leyen, said that all Member States, through coordination, should activate the so-called Safety Mechanism to suspend flights to countries in southern Africa. The new variant has already been detected in Europe.
Resilience plan — The loan agreement through the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism between the European Commission and Romania for the disbursement of a first tranche, worth approximately 15 billion Euros, was initialed on Friday by the new Finance Minister, Adrian Câciu, the finance ministry announced on Saturday. The loan will be used to finance the state budget deficit and to refinance the government public debt, based on budget expenditures made for the reforms provided for in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). The amounts will be made available in ten installments, based on the fulfillment by the Romanian side of the targets provided in the reforms and investments associated with the loan. At the same time, the European Commission will make available a pre-financing of 13% of the loan (about 1.94 billion Euros), after the Agreement comes into force. Under the PNRR Romania benefits from approximately 29 billion Euros, almost half of the amount being a grant and the rest a loan.
Tennis — Romania’s team leads the team of the state of Peru 2-0 in the qualification playoffs for the Davis Cup final phase after the tennis player Marius Copil defeated Conner Huertas del Pino 7-5, 6-2 on Saturday in Cluj (northwest), in the second singles match of the competition. In the first singles match, Nicolae Frunză defeated Nicolas Alvarez, in 2 sets, 6-2, 6-4. The doubles match between Marius Copil / Horia Tecău and Sergio Galdos / Arklon Huertas del Pino will take place on Sunday. Sunday will also see the singles matches between Marius Copil – Nicolas Alvarez and Nicolae Frunză – Conner Huertas del Pino. Romania and Peru meet for the first time in the Davis Cup.
