Radio România Internațional

Tag: Raluca

Sports roundup

Beijing in China is these days seeing the Winter
Olympics 2022, which kicked off with a curling competition on Wednesday.
Training for the men’s luge contest has officially begun. Fresh curling contests
are to take place on Thursday as well as well as in Freestyle skiing and the
first matches of the women’s ice hockey tournament. In Beijing, Romania is
being represented by a delegation of 22 athletes, 8 in the women’s contests and
14 in the men’s competitions. They are participating in 7 events, luge,
bob-sleigh, skiing, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, biathlon and speed
skating.

The opening ceremony is scheduled for Friday on the
Olympic Stadium in Beijing, where the Romanian flag will be carried by Raluca
Strămăturaru and Paul Pepene. Raluca, a 36 years old athlete running in the
luge race, is at her fourth participation in an Olympic tournament. At the
latest edition of the prestigious competition, in 2018 in Korea, Raluca managed
the best show in the Romanian delegation coming 7th in the ranking. Cross-country
skier Paul Pepene is also at his fourth Olympic participation. 33-year-old
Pepene is the only Romanian athlete to have won a world title in international
under 23 competitions.

Bob-sleigh was the only winter sporting event where athletes
from Romania ever claimed a medal. The event took place in Grenoble in 1968,
when the team made up of Ion Panturu and Nicolae Neagoe stepped onto the third
step of the podium. Italians Eugenio Monti and Luciano de Paolis won the gold
medal while the silver went to Horst Floth and Peppi Bader of Germany.

Almost 100 years ago, another two bobsleigh racers
from Romania, Alexandru Papana and Dumitru Hubert got the same performance. The
event took place in Schreiberhau, Germany in 1933 and a year later another pair
from Romania, Alexandru Frim – Vasile Dumitrescu, scored the same result in
Engelberg, Switzerland. However, the best Romanian performance in a world event
was secured by Ion Panturu and Dumitru Focseneanu who got second in Lake
Placid, the USA, in 1969.

(bill)

2 February 2022
Sports roundup

Beijing in China is these days seeing the Winter
Olympics 2022, which kicked off with a curling competition on Wednesday.
Training for the men’s luge contest has officially begun. Fresh curling contests
are to take place on Thursday as well as well as in Freestyle skiing and the
first matches of the women’s ice hockey tournament. In Beijing, Romania is
being represented by a delegation of 22 athletes, 8 in the women’s contests and
14 in the men’s competitions. They are participating in 7 events, luge,
bob-sleigh, skiing, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, biathlon and speed
skating.

The opening ceremony is scheduled for Friday on the
Olympic Stadium in Beijing, where the Romanian flag will be carried by Raluca
Strămăturaru and Paul Pepene. Raluca, a 36 years old athlete running in the
luge race, is at her fourth participation in an Olympic tournament. At the
latest edition of the prestigious competition, in 2018 in Korea, Raluca managed
the best show in the Romanian delegation coming 7th in the ranking. Cross-country
skier Paul Pepene is also at his fourth Olympic participation. 33-year-old
Pepene is the only Romanian athlete to have won a world title in international
under 23 competitions.

Bob-sleigh was the only winter sporting event where athletes
from Romania ever claimed a medal. The event took place in Grenoble in 1968,
when the team made up of Ion Panturu and Nicolae Neagoe stepped onto the third
step of the podium. Italians Eugenio Monti and Luciano de Paolis won the gold
medal while the silver went to Horst Floth and Peppi Bader of Germany.

Almost 100 years ago, another two bobsleigh racers
from Romania, Alexandru Papana and Dumitru Hubert got the same performance. The
event took place in Schreiberhau, Germany in 1933 and a year later another pair
from Romania, Alexandru Frim – Vasile Dumitrescu, scored the same result in
Engelberg, Switzerland. However, the best Romanian performance in a world event
was secured by Ion Panturu and Dumitru Focseneanu who got second in Lake
Placid, the USA, in 1969.

(bill)

2 February 2022
A quarter of Romania’s population vaccinated

Over 4 million
people in Romania have received at least one dose of the anti-Covid vaccine,
which accounts for more than a quarter of the country’s eligible population, of
16 years of age and above. Out of these over 19% have got the booster dose,
while 6% only the first jab, according to data the national vaccination
platform posted on its Facebook page on Thursday. 12 million people with ages between 40-49,
who are making the majority, and between 16 and 19 are still to be immunized.

Capital city
Bucharest with 36% and Cluj in north-western Romania, with 33% are topping the
table with the largest number of people vaccinated with at least one dose. Next
come the counties of Sibiu and Brasov, in central Romania, and also Timis in
the west.

The regions
at the bottom of the ranking are Giurgiu in the south, Botosani in the
north-east and Suceava in the north, the last with less than 12% people
vaccinated.

The vaccine
rollout continues at a pace of roughly 100 thousand people vaccinated a day,
being stepped up of late by novel vaccination methods. Authorities have
scrapped the planned lists on the national vaccination platform allowing the
Romanians to get the jab only by producing an ID. Drive throughs and the
so-called vaccination marathons have largely contributed to the successful
vaccine rollout. Mobile units have been dispatched to remote areas and
vaccination points have been opened on the premises of major enterprises around
the country.

Family
physicians have also joined the vaccination efforts making available the
vaccine to their patients. According to Romania’s Minister of Labour and Social
Protection, Raluca Turcan who has visited several rural regions, people in the
countryside, mainly those in the vulnerable categories, have not been
vaccinated yet although they want to.

According to the
minister, mobile units would be a solution to this issue particularly for those
who cannot afford the transport to a remote vaccination center.

‘At present
the best investment is vaccination and the state allots all the necessary
resources so that everybody may benefit this facility’, presidential adviser
Cosmin Marinescu said on Thursday.

According to
the Romanian official, it is important to understand that vaccination is the
key to the resumption of all activities so that the economy may recover and we
all return to normality. In another development, the government is to kick off
a new information campaign on vaccination, which comprises three videos and an
audio advertisement.

‘We are
targeting those who are still reluctant, those who are concerned about the idea
of vaccination, who need more arguments, besides those medical or scientific,’
says the president of the National Committee for the coordination of Romania’s
vaccine rollout, Valeriu Gheorghita.

(bill)

21 May 2021
April 19, 2021 UPDATE

DIPLOMACY The head
of the Romanian diplomacy Bogdan Aurescu on Monday participated in the online
meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers. High on the agenda were the situations in
Georgia and Belarus, the Navalny case, the EU-India relations, the situation in
Myanmar, the Iranian nuclear file, the situation in Mozambique and the
Post-Cotonou Agreement. Talks also focused on the latest developments in
Ethiopia and Ukraine. Ministers hailed the conclusions over the southern
vicinity, an EU cooperation strategy for the India-Pacific region and the EU
integrated strategy for Sahel. Minister Aurescu highlighted the importance of
the EU’s consistent and sustained support for Ukraine’s efforts as essential
for consolidating the rule of law and democracy. He has also voiced concern for
the Russian deployment of troops and military gear in Crimea, at Ukraine’s
eastern border, reiterating Romania’s stand for supporting Ukraine’s
territorial integrity and sovereignty. The Romanian official also reiterated
the need for a more active EU involvement in settling the long-lasting
conflicts in the Black Sea region.

COVID-10 Over 1,768 new SARS-CoV-2 infections have been reported in
Romania in the past 24 hours, out of roughly 12 thousand tests carried out, the
Group for Strategic Communication has announced. 149 people have died bringing
the death toll up to 26,500. More than one million people have been infected in
Romania since the beginning of the pandemic and over 90% of them have cured. Over
half a million doses of Pfizer BioNTech vaccine arrived in Romania on Monday, adding
to the nearly four million Romania has so far received from the US-German
company. Since the vaccine rollout kicked off in Romania in late December, over
2.6 million people have been immunized, out of which 1.6 million has got the
booster dose. Romania is presently using the vaccines authorised by the
European Medicines Agency, EMA, namely Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca.

TENNIS The WTA ranking has remained unchanged since last week.
Australian Ashleigh Barty ranks first, followed by Naomi Osaka and Romanian
Simona Halep. Romania boasts four players in top 100. One of these is Patricia
Tig, who went down a notch since last week and is presently ranking 64th.
Sorana Cirstea is 67th and Irina Begu comes 75th. In the
doubles ranking, Raluca Olaru went down a place and is currently ranking 43rd
while Monica Niculescu is on the 55th position.

PANDEMIC
The total number of
COVID-19 infections worldwide is now over 142 million, with 120 million
patients recovered and 3 million dead, according to the latest worldometers.info
updates. As of today, in Italy, only 3 out of 20 provinces remain in the red
zone, with the toughest restrictions. The others are included in the orange
zone, but many will be rated as yellow zone as of next week, allowing the
reopening of restaurants and resuming travels from one region to another. As of
today, 7 million children in Italy return to schools after over a year of
absence. Meanwhile, UK reports decreases both in terms of COVID-related deaths
and in terms of infections, and the number of people getting vaccines every 24
hours has reached 600,000. In Israel, mass vaccination led to the almost
complete reopening of the economy. The infection rate has been staying very low
for over a week. Israeli citizens are no longer bound to wear face covering
outdoor, and school activities are back to normal. Across the ocean, over half
of the total number of adults in the US have received at least a first dose of anti-COVID
vaccine.

(bill)

19 April 2021