Morning headlines – March 22th 2021

Coronavirus and vaccines

• Vaccination in Romania: More than 1.7 million people got vaccinated (more than 775.000 with both doses). In the last 24 hours, more than 44.000 people got the vaccine (more than 2.000 with both doses).
• Coronavirus in Romania: In the last 24 hours, there were recorded 4.267 new SARS CoV-2 cases, 76 deaths and in ICU there are 1.286 people hospitalized.
• More Pfizer vaccines. A new tranche composed of 345.150 Pfizer BioNTech doses is arriving today in the country. The doses arrive in Romania at airports from Otopeni, Cluj-Napoca and Timisoara.
• The vaccination platform will suffer some changes. The scheduling platform for the COVID vaccine will change to show those enlisted on the waiting lists the estimated time until they can get a place for vaccination and the type of vaccine from the vaccination centre, so that the people to not give up scheduling after waiting for a long time. The announcement was made at Digi24 by colonel Valeriu Gheorghita, the coordinator of the vaccination campaign.

Global political and military events

• Great Britain is presenting the future of the armed forces. The British Government is presenting on Monday the new defence plans within the report of the Foreign Policies, Defence and Security Review, promising to strengthen the defence of British interests in the world, says BBC. We will see more ships, submarines, marines on the sea and the Marine Infantry will turn into a new unity called the „Future Command Force”, said the Defence Ministry in a press release before presenting the reports on Monday.
• Great Britain is getting ready for space war. The Royal Air Forces are getting ready for space operations, according to a report published on Monday, after Russia has developed and tested anti-satellite missiles, says BBC.
• Air strikes in Yemen. The coalition led by Saudi Arabia had struck on Sunday the Houthi militias from Yemen, the main targets being the Sanaa capital and the Salif port from the Red Sea, says AP.
• The Pentagon chief, visit in Afghanistan. The Defence Secretary, Lloyd Austin, in his first visit in Afghanistan as Pentagon’s chief has stated, on Sunday, that the Biden Administration wants a responsible end of the war, but violence must decrease in order to give diplomacy a chance.
• Iran planned the attack on targets in the US capital. The members of the Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have discussed the possibility of launching some attacks on a military base from the US capital, Washington DC, and over a high US military official, said sources quoted by the AP agency.
• The Russians have attacked a refugee’s camp in Syria. Many civilians, among them children as well, from a refugees camp near Idlib were killed by a Russian missile launched from a ship or from the Hmeimim base, said a British NGO which is monitoring the situation in the country, SOHR, according to ww.syriahr.com.

Romania’s defence and security

• The Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister is participating to an EU reunion. The minister Bogdan Aurescu is participating, on Monday, to a European Union foreign affairs ministers reunion, taking place in Bruxelles. According to a press release of the FAM, the approached topics will be the EU’s relation with Russia, the situation in Georgia, the EU’s approach on the Western Balkans, the situation in Venezuela, Myanmar and Ethiopia.
• March 22^nd: The International Day of Water – The Association Act for Tomorrow is organizing, on Monday, the online conference on the Report on “Microplastics mapping in Romania’s Waters”, the first national report on Romania’s waters microplastics.