Morning headlines – January 29th 2021

Coronavirus and vaccines

• The number of people who need ICU assistance is decreasing. In Romania, the number of people who need ICU assistance is now below 1.000, precisely 989, says Mediafax. Almost 3.000 new COVID-19 cases were registered yesterday, out of 30.000 tests.
• The Novavax vaccine proves to be 89% effective in the Great Britain’s studies. Prime-minister Boris Johnson has praised the “good news” and stated that the medicines regulation authority in Great Britain will now evaluate the vaccine, says Mediafax. Great Britain has 60 million vaccine doses, and the European Union 100 million.
• More than 100 million COVID-19 cases globally. Almost 1,3% of world’s population was infected with the new coronavirus and more than 2,1 million people have died. One person was infected each 7.7 seconds since the beginning of the year. Almost 668.250 cases were recorded each day, in the same period, and the global death toll rate is 2.15%.  The most affected countries – the US, India, Brazilia, Russia and the United Kingdom – represent more than half of all COVID-19 recorded cases, according to Reuters.

Global political and military events

• The US is going through the recession of the century. The US economy is going through the biggest economic contraction following the World War II, 3.5%, according to recent data, says Digi24. It is the biggest contraction after the World War II, 1946, when the war’s effects were coming to light. In the 2009 crisis, the US economy has only decreased with 2.5%.
• Russia had a record decrease of the population. Russia’s population has decreased with more than 510.000 people in just one year, the biggest decrease since the middle of the 2000’s, according to official statistics published on Thursday, says Digi24.
• Turkey wants to go to space. Recep Erdogan has talked with Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, about the future common projects and collaborations they could have, said the Communication Agency of the Turkish presidency, according to Digi24.
• The US asks Turkey, Russia and the UAE to stop any military intervention in Libya. The US ambassador to the UN, Richard Mills, has asked, in the UN Security Council, Russia, Turkey and the UAE to stop any military intervention in Libya and follow its sovereignty, says AP.

Romania’s security and defence

• Fire at Hospital Matei Bals from Bucharest. Four patients have died, and 102 were evacuated, according to Raed Arafat’s statements. There is no information, yet, about what could have provoked the fire. It was activated a Red Plan. In the last three months, four serious fires took place in hospitals in Romania, according to Digi24.
• Humanitarian flight. An aircraft from the MoND took off, Friday morning, to transport a patient with serious burns who needs medical assistance in Belgium, says Digi24. This is happening eight days after the man who has more than 50% of its body covered with burns was hospitalized in three hospitals from Romania, without getting the necessary care, and a SMURD aircraft had to return back to its base, due to technical issues.