Romania has topped half a million COVID-19 cases
Romania has on Friday topped 500.000 cases of COVID-19 infections recorded since the start of the pandemic. 390,000 patients were declared cured, but there were also 12,000 deaths attributted to the new coronavirus. The figures also show more than 8,000 cases in the last 24 hours, out of around 35,400 tests. For the first time since the middle of November, the number of people admitted to hospital due to COVID-19 has fallen under 13,000 nationwide, but a new record was set for patients in Intensive Care Units – 1,275.
The last day of campaigning ahead of Romania’s parliamentary elections
Friday is the last day of campaigning ahead of Romania’s parliamentary vote, which will be held on December 6th under special conditions, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Prime Minister Ludovic Orban has said that people who live in quarantined areas will be able to vote without having to produce a declaration to justify their journey to the voting station. However, people who tested positive for COVID-19 or in isolation have to require the mobile ballot box. Romanians living abroad were able to vote by mail, a process thas has already ended. Authorities have announced that 14,572 postal ballots were received until Thursday afternoon.
NATO’s Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana says the alliance could help with the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines
NATO could get involved in the distribution of vaccines against COVID-19, the Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana has said in a briefing with the Romanian media. Mr. Geoana has said that the Alliance is prepared and could offer support in the distribution phase too, as it did during all the other phases of this pandemic.
Mircea Geoana: My assessment and what we hear – including in Romania, in the US and in other countries – is that there will be a role for troops in NATO countries in the delivery phase for vaccines that are to be produced. As always, NATO stands ready to be useful and to assist, provided that member countries ask us to do so.
Mădălina Brotăcel, RADOR
