LAWS - The Bucharest Government amended on Thursday, in its third meeting this year, the Road Traffic Law and introduced much tougher sanctions for aggressive drivers and for drivers who endanger traffic safety, such as the suspension of the driving license for 4 months for speeding. Also on Thursday, the Government approved the financing contract signed by Romania with the European Investment Bank, worth 305 million euros, for funding the Cluj Regional Hospital (north-west). Another law on the government’s agenda established a new state aid to reduce the excise duty on diesel fuel used in agriculture.
COVID-19 – The Health Minister, Alexandru Rafila estimates a sharp increase in the number of Covid cases as of next week, going as high as 40,000 per day. He also said numbers could start to drop around February 10. According to Rafila, the healthcare system is under high pressure in some regions, with the county of Cluj having the highest hospital bed
COVID-19 ROMANIA - 16,610 new cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection were reported on Wednesday in Romania in addition to 58 related fatalities, of which 2 were prior to the reference period, the Group for Strategic Communication has announced. Half of Romania's counties are in the so-called 'red zone' with a high incidence rate. Since the start of the pandemic, over 1.9 million Romanians got infected with COVID-19 and some 60,000 died to the virus. Against the backdrop of the anti-vaxx campaign fuelled by part of the media, a number of politicians and other public figures, Romania has the second-lowest national vaccination rates at EU level after Bulgaria.
COVID-19 WORLD - The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has warned global leaders that the coronavirus pandemic is far from over. The WHO official warned against the misleading assumption that the Omicron strain is mild and thus less threatening. "An exponentia
ENERGY The Executive in Bucharest on Wednesday made it
compulsory to recalculate erroneously issued energy bills by non-compliance
with mechanisms of capping and subsidies. Suppliers have been given 15 days to
operate the necessary changes penalty-free, Energy Minister Virgil Popescu has
announced adding that in order to prevent any possible abuses, for the duration
of the emergency ordinance, it is illegal to go off the grid. The government
has approved a memorandum under which Romania will carry on its technical and
financial assistance to the Romanian-speaking ex-soviet Republic of Moldova in
order to support the latter s efforts to join the European Union. This support
has recently materialized into a non-reimbursable financial aid of 100 million
euros.
PROGRAM Authorities in Romania on Wednesday launched the National Program for
Combating Cancer in an event attended by president Klaus Iohannis who said the
document has realistic and measurable objec
In 2014, Romania’s then prime minister, Victor Ponta, was forced to hand back his doctorate after it emerged that much of his thesis had been plagiarised. The country’s current PM, Nicolae Ciucă, now faces a similar accusation.
The National Liberal Party (PNL) Chairman Florin Citu declared on Thursday that the liberals have several options for the Ministry of Research, Innova.