Radio România Internațional

Tag: outbreaks

  • September 30, 2020

    September 30, 2020

    COVID-19 Coronavirus outbreaks are spreading in Romania, particularly in care centres and in hospitals. The number of schools resorting to exclusively online classes is also on the rise. According to the latest official report, there are 2,158 new cases in the past 24 hours, and 33 new deaths. So far, 4,825 COVID-19 patients have died in Romania, and more than 127,500 people have tested positive.



    ELECTIONS Police and prosecutors carry on investigations in a criminal case initiated after on Sunday a Social Democrat running for a local councilor post was caught by representatives of Save Romania-PLUS Alliance with nearly 500 official reports from polling stations. The Central Electoral Bureau is to announce today a decision regarding the Social Democrats request for a vote recount in Bucharest Sector 1. The candidate backed by the Liberals and Save Romania-PLUS Alliance, MEP Clotilde Armand, said she would request the General Prosecutors Office to take over the investigation. The acting Sector 1 mayor, the Social Democrat Dan Tudorache, said he also requested the Bureau to do a vote recount. According to centralised data, Clotilde Armand has won the election with 40.95%, while Dan Tudorache got 39.82% of the votes. In Bucharest, the independent candidate Nicuşor Dan, backed by the Liberals and Save Romania-PLUS Alliance, secured some 43% of the votes for General Mayor of Bucharest. At national level, partial results point to major changes in the administration of county capitals. The Liberals, in power, have won 15 county capitals, the Social Democrats in opposition 14, and Save Romania-PLUS Alliance and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians 4 each. As for county councils, the Social Democrats won 20, the Liberals 17, and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians 4.



    COURT The Constitutional Court of Romania has dismissed an objection raised by the President and Government against a bill authorizing Parliament to set the date of this years parliamentary elections. The current bill is therefore deemed in line with the constitution, and president Iohannis is either to sign it into law, or to send it back to Parliament for a review. Meanwhile, in keeping with current legislation, the Liberal government decided on Friday that the parliamentary election will be held on December 6. Until its publication in the Official Journal, the bill tabled by the opposition parties, the Social Democrats, the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians and ALDE, is not in force. If this happens, which specialists say is no longer possible because there is not enough time, it will be for the first time in 30 years that the date of general elections in Romania is set by Parliament and not by the Government.



    CONFLICT The Romanian Foreign Ministry announces that Romanian embassies in Erevan and Baku are prepared to provide consular assistance to Romanian citizens in the conflict in the region. Romanian citizens are urged to be cautious and to seek information in official sources as regards possible changes in travel conditions in the 2 countries. The European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) called on Azerbaijan and Armenia to refrain from any measures, especially military ones, that might infringe upon civilians rights. Clashes between Azeri and Armenian troops over the Nagorno-Karabakh refion continue, in spite of an appeal for cease-fire and negotiations coming from the UN Security Council. According to official data, 98 people, mostly Armenian separatist fighters and , and 17 civilians on both sides, have been killed in the past few days in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.



    TENNIS The Romanians Simona Halep (no. 2 WTA, seeded 1st) and Irina Begu (72 WTA) are playing today in the 2nd round of the Roland Garros tournament. Other Romanians have also qualified into the second round: Ana Bogdan defeated Timea Babos (Hungary), Irina Bara secured a surprising win against Donna Vekic (Croatia), and Patricia Ţig outplayed the Swiss Stefanie Voegele. In the doubles, Ana Bogdan / Rebecca Peterson (Sweden) are taking today on Marie Bouzkova (Czech Republic) / Arantxa Rus (Netherlands), Romanians Andrea Mitu and Patricia Tig are pitted against Madison Brengle (USA) / Yana Sizikova (Russia), Monica Niculescu (Romania) / Misaki Doi (Japan) are playing against Irina Bara (Romania) / Fanny Stollar (Hungary), and Sorana Carstea (Romania) / Sara Sorribes Tormo (Spain) play against Alison Riske(USA) / Ajla Tomljanovic (Australia). (translated by: A.M. Popescu)

  • May 17, 2019

    May 17, 2019

    WEATHER More than 3,000 fire fighters were deployed on Thursday and Friday to support the authorities and citizens in 22 villages and towns, pumping water out of the houses following the heavy rainfalls and flash floods of recent days. The most affected counties were Bistriţa Năsăud and Mures, in the centre, Gorj and Teleorman in the south, Hunedoara in the south-west and Maramureş in the north. Scores of people have been evacuated in Bistriţa-Năsăud County over the past few days, hundreds of households, company offices and public institution headquarters have been flooded, and hail damaged the farms. The National Meteorology Agency has extended the alert for unstable weather across the country until Sunday.




    INFLATION The Governor of the National Bank of Romania, Mugur Isărescu, has presented today the institutions quarterly inflation report. The Central Bank updated its year-end inflation forecast to 4.2% and estimates an inflation rate of 3.3% for 2020. Inflation has reversed the downward trend reported in the last quarter of 2018, and prices went up in the first 3 months of this year more than the National Bank had expected, Mugur Isărescu said. He also warned that the demand for products and services is still in excess of what the domestic economy can produce, leading to a rise in imports and a trade imbalance. Inflation in Romania is in fact among the highest in the European Union, alongside the rate in Hungary. According to the central bank governor, in the coming 3 quarters inflation will remain above target, and is expected to go down later on to around 3.5%.




    CEREMONY The President of Romania Klaus Iohannis decided to postpone the May 20 ceremony at Cotroceni Palace, when the year 2019 was scheduled to be declared the “Year of Gratitude honouring the victims of communism, 30 years after the Romanian Revolution of December 1989. The Presidency announced on Friday that the head of state wants to remove any suspicions that the event may be used for electoral purposes. According to the same source, ever since taking over his office, the President has constantly worked to condemn the crimes and abuse committed by the communist repression system, and to pay tribute to the victims of totalitarianism.





    ECOFIN The Romanian Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici is chairing on Friday in Brussels the EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN), as part of Romanias presidency of the Council of the EU. According to a news release from the Finance Ministry in Bucharest, the agenda of the meeting includes the Directive on the structure of excise duty on alcohol and alcoholic beverages, the Directive on general arrangements for excise duties, the digital services tax, and a review of the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions. Also on Friday, the Romanian Finance Minister attends the Economic and Financial Dialogue between the EU and the Western Balkans and Turkey.




    SWINE FEVER African swine fever is still present in Romania, in 84 villages in 16 counties, the National Veterinary and Food Safety Authority announced. Of the around 400 active outbreaks, 10 are in agricultural holdings. More than 365,000 pigs have been slaughtered so far because of this disease, which was first reported in 2017, in Satu Mare County. African swine fever does not affect humans, but has a major negative economic and social impact.




    EUROVISION Ester Peony, representing Romania in the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest with a piece called On a Sunday, failed to qualify to Saturdays finals in Tel Aviv, where the second semi-final was held on Thursday night. Romanias best performances in this competition were 2 third places, won by Luminiţa Anghel & Sistem in Kiev in 2005, and by Paula Seling and Ovi in Oslo in 2010, and a 4th place won by Mihai Trăistariu, in Athens, 2006.



    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • New swine fever outbreaks

    New swine fever outbreaks

    On May 1, 2018, Romania had 4.129 million pigs, down over 357,000 compared to the same date last year. Since the summer of 2017, almost 233,000 pigs have been culled because of the African swine fever. According to the latest report from the National Veterinary and Food Safety Authority, the African swine fever virus is present in over 200 localities in 13 counties, after the Bucharest Animal Health and Diagnostic Institute confirmed the disease in Dambovita County, in the south of Romania, at the end of last week. Sandu Tolea, the chief of the Dambovita County Veterinary Directorate, told us about the measures taken at local level:



    “A 3-km buffer zone and a 10-km monitoring zone have been set. Also, our staff jointly with County Police Inspectorate teams have roadblocks in place in the area.



    The number of outbreaks in Romania is close to 900, including large industrial units. Officials in the sanitary-veterinary sector insist that elementary rules must be complied with, in order to stop the disease from spreading. According to the Agriculture Minister Petre Daea, the ones to blame at this point for the growing number of African swine fever cases are the people themselves:



    “Veterinarians must be alerted every time a pig owner notices any symptoms. If someone plans to slaughter a pig, they have to do it only in the presence of a veterinarian. The vet will then take a small piece of the meat for laboratory tests to see whether the pig had this virus. Unless this rule is observed across the country, we will fail to contain the disease.



    In other words, any suspicion must be communicated immediately. All the animals suspected of having the disease must be killed, and the owners will receive compensations.



    The African swine fever does not affect humans, so people are at no risk whatsoever. But the virus does have a huge impact, in economic and social terms. So merely transporting infected pork from one place to another may have dramatic consequences. And since 75 out of 100 pigs in private households in the European Union are raised in Romania, the risk of spreading the disease is enormous.



    And to make matters even worse, the authorities fear that Romania might also be hit by the ovine rinderpest (or PPR) virus, after the neighbouring Bulgaria reported 6 such outbreaks. The disease infects sheep and goats, and it can have a 70% mortality rate. For this reason, the authorities have banned the shipping and purchasing of animals and reproductive materials, namely egg cells and embryos, from the affected localities, and the imports of such products in Romania.


    (Translated by A.M. Popescu)

  • September 16, 2018

    September 16, 2018

    SUMMIT – The Romanian capital city Bucharest is hosting on Monday and Tuesday the 3rd Summit of the Three Seas Initiative, an informal president-level platform that brings together the 12 EU member states located between the Baltic, Adriatic and Black Sea, namely Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. According to the presidential administration, the main goal of the initiative is the economic development of these countries, by enhancing interconnectivity, particularly from north to south, in 3 major areas: transport, energy, and digital. On the sidelines of the Summit, the first Business Forum of this platform will be held. President Klaus Iohannis will open the Forum on Monday, and later on he will take part in a plenary meeting alongside his counterparts from Croatia, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, Poland – Andrzej Duda, Austria – Alexander van der Bellen, and the European Commissioner for Regional Development Corina Creţu. The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, will attend the Three Seas Initiative Summit for the first time. The first two summits were held in Dubrovnik in 2016 and in Warsaw in 2017.




    SWINE FEVER – A first African swine fever outbreak has been confirmed today in Dambovita County, in the south of Romania. Thirteen counties are currently affected by the epidemic, most of them in the south-east and south. The number of outbreaks reaches 900, with the virus identified in over 200 localities. Hundreds of thousands of animals have been culled. Bucharest has requested financial support from the European Commission for the farmers affected by the African swine fever epidemic.




    REFERENDUM – The Constitutional Court of Romania is discussing on Monday a bill designed to redefine family, in the Constitution, as based on the marriage of a man and a woman. The bill was passed in the Senate on Tuesday, and requires validation through a referendum. It is based on a citizen initiative signed by 3 million people. The initiators, which are Christian organisations and associations, want the Constitution to narrow down the definition of family to the marriage between a man and a woman, so as to prevent the possibility of legalising same-sex marriage. ACCEPT Association, which promotes the rights of sexual minorities, says that Tuesdays vote in the Senate has turned homophobia into a principle safeguarded by the state, and that constitutional protection for many types of families in Romania will be sacrificed. Except for Save Romania Union, all parliamentary parties have supported the initiative.




    ATTACK – Two American basketball players, aged 24 and 25 respectively, and playing for a team in Braila, south-eastern Romania, were stabbed last night during a conflict that broke out in a bar in the city centre. One of them is in a serious condition, with a punctured lung. He underwent surgery and will be transferred to Bucharest. The other one is in a stable condition. The 2 had been transferred to the club in Braila just one month before. The Romanian handball player Marian Cozma, who was playing for Veszprem, was killed in a bar in the same city, on February 8, 2009, by attackers who stabbed him to death.




    TENNIS – The north-western Romanian city of Cluj is hosting today the doubles match and the last 2 singles matches of the Davis Cups Group II round 3 between Romania and Poland. The score so far is 1-1. On Saturday, Marius Copil defeated Kamil Majchrzak, and Adrian Ungur lost to Hubert Hurkacz. The doubles match will be pitting Florin Mergea/Horia Tecău, for Romania, against Lukasz Kubot/Marcin Matkowski for Poland. The last 2 singles matches are Copil vs. Hurkacz and Ungur vs. Majchrzak. The winning team will be promoted to Group I of the Davis Cup Europe/Africa Zone, from which Romania was demoted at the end of last year.





    ROWING – In the World Rowing Championship hosted by Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Romania failed to get any medals in the mens double sculls final, the womens eight final and the mens eight final, held on Sunday. On Saturday the Romanian rowers won 2 medals. Ionela-Livia Cozmiuc and Gianina-Elena Beleagă won the gold in the lightweight womens double sculls, while Marius-Vasile Cozmiuc and Ciprian Tudosă won the silver in the mens pair final.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)