Morning Headlines - February 15th 2021

Coronavirus and vacccines

• Tensions between China and the US in the WHO investigation on the pandemic’s origins. Jake Sullian, the counselor for National Security of president Joseph Biden, has stated that the US is concerned with the data the Chinese authorities have offered. “We have deep concerns on how the preliminary conclusions of the Covid-19 investigation were communicated and we have questions on the procedures used to get to those conclusions. It is imperative that this report be independent, with expert findings free from intervention or alteration by the Chinese government”. The Chinese authorities have reacted and have accused the US for disturbing the cooperation in the pandemic fight by undermining the international institutions.
• In Romania, on Sunday, there were recorded 1.872 new cases of SARS-COV-2, 41 deaths and 964 people who are in a serious condition.
• Today it starts the vaccination with the AstraZeneca vaccine. 180 vaccination centers in the entire country are expecting, on Monday, more than 10.000 people.
• Romania is on the fourth place in Europe when it comes to the number of vaccine doses administrated to 100 people (5.59 people). The daily average of administrated doses is placing us on the sixth place, with 34.755 inoculations, says Mediafax.

Global political and military events

• Guinea has declared, on Sunday, an Ebola epidemic. The Government has said that three people have died in the last days and other four were infected, says AP. Last month, the WHO said that it created a global stock of around 500.000 emergency Ebola vaccines to help the elimination of future epidemics, but only 7.000 were available when the statement was made. The Ebola vaccine is produced by Merck, says Mediafax.
• Kosovo: A left party has won, on Sunday, the legislative elections. The Self-Determination Movement/ Vetevendosje (VV) of Albin Kurti got 48% of the votes according to the first official results after counting more than 90% of the ballots, says Agerpress. PDK got almost 17% of the votes, meanwhile LDK center-right got 13%.
• Israel, missiles attack over Syria. Israeli aircrafts have attacked, on Monday morning, the Kiswa village, 15 km of Damascus, where it is located a command of a division hosting Iran’s troops in the country.
• 2021 IDEX novelty, in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates. The Czech Republic will present, for the first time at a fair, the 8x8 wheeled self-propelled cannon DITA; Russia will also for the first time present the Armata tank. Belarus will participate with the light armored vehicle MZKT-490101. The French company Arquus will also participate with a light armored vehicle, Scarabee. IDEX 2021 will be held between 21 and 25^th of February 2021.

Romania’s defence and security

• Online conference on the Resilience and recovery mechanism. Euro-parliamentarians Sigfried Muresan and Dragos Paslaru are participating, on Monday, at the online press conference on the Resilience and recovery mechanism. The European Parliament has voted, last week, the final version of the Resilience and recovery mechanism, conceived to help the EU countries to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic effects and it is worth 672,5 billion euro, says Agerpress.
• SANITAS protest. The Sanitas Federation Unionists are protesting, on Monday, at the Finances Ministry as they are unhappy with the budget allotted this year for the Health system.