ENERGY Electricity and gas prices will be capped for a year
starting April, under a new emergency ordinance the government in Bucharest
passed on Friday. So, household consumers who do not exceed 100 kilowatts per
month will be paying 0.68 lei per kilowatt, VAT included. For a consumption
under 300 kilowatts, the fee will be 0.80 lei per kilowatt at the most. Under
the new law, non-household consumers will be charged up to one Leu per
kilowatt, Romania s Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca says adding that the prices
for gas will be around 0.31 lei for household consumers and no more than 0.37
lei per kilowatt for non-household consumers. The measures are meant to offer
stability to both the citizens and the business environment, at the same time
being in accordance with the free market rules. It will be applied from April 1st
this year until March 31st 2023. Companies that fail to comply with
the aforementioned rules are subject to fines and the impact of the new
measures has be
COVID-19
The number of Covid-19
infections is on the rise in Romania with over four thousand new cases reported
yesterday and 63 related fatalities. However the number of hospitalized
patients has been going down to only 32 hundred, out of which 502 in ICUs. No
anti-Covid restriction has been applied in Romania since March 9th
and no prevention measures are currently in place. Infections have also been
reported in other European countries after the restrictions were lifted although
there is no increase in the number of severe cases or related fatalities.
However, the World Health Organisation has voiced concern about the rising
number of infections due to the latest relaxation measures and the widely
spread idea that the Omicron variant is less severe.
REFUGEES The number of Ukrainian refugees who have made
it to Romania in the past three weeks since the beginning of the conflict has
reached half a million. Almost 80 thousand have chosen to remain in Romania.