Morning headlines – March 5th 2021

Coronavirus and vaccines

• Vaccination in Romania: More than 1.060.000 people got vaccinated (more than 627.000 with both doses). In the last 24 hours, more than 43.000 people got vaccinated (more than 7.300 with both doses).
• Coronavirus in Romania: In the last 24 hours, 4.271 new SARS CoV-2 cases were reported, 98 deaths and in ICU there are now 1.070 people.
• Pfizer moves a key department to Bucharest. Pfizer has announced that it will fire 38 employees out of the 238 from its distribution centre in Zaventem (Belgium). The reasons would be the move of the supply planning department to Bucharest, Romania.
• WHO investigators will no longer publish the intermediary report. The WHO team investigation the COVID-19 origins are planning on giving up the intermediary report on its recent mission in China, says WSJ. China has refused to offer data on the early COVID-19 cases to the team, said Dominic Dwyer, one of the investigators, which could complicate the efforts to understand how the pandemic started.
• Anti-COVID alliance. Israel, Austria and Denmark leaders met on Thursday in Jerusalem to officially announce that they will establish a COVID-19 vaccine alliance, says DPA. They will create a common fund to continue the research and cooperation in the vaccine production, to accelerate the supply for states all over the world.

Global political and military events

• Great Britain. During the lockdown, the number of teenagers recruited for terrorist purposes has increased, said the Foreign Affairs Minister, Dominic Raab, says AFP.
• China is increasing the military expenditures with 7%. The defence budget for 2021 will increase with 6.8%, said the prime-minister Li Keqiang, according to AP. China’s military expenditures will get to 208.47 billion dollars.
• Pope’s visit to Irak. The ayatollah Ali Sistani, the biggest religious personality for the Shiites in Irak, will meet with Pope Francisc, in Najaf city, during the first visit of the Pope in this country, says AP.
• Israel is reviewing its attack plans on Iran. The minister of defence Benny Gantz has stated for FoxNews that the Israeli army is updating its plans to destroy the nuclear facilities of Iran.

Romania’s security and defence

• The Superior Council of the Magistracy. The Superior Council of the Magistracy has rejected, on Thursday, the minister of justice’s request, Stelian Ion, to discus in the plenum the defence of the judiciary system’s independence on the suspicions emerged in the public opinion according to which an investigation in the “August 10” file actually never happened.