News in brief
The International Monetary Fund estimates that years of efforts to contain Greece’s national debt will go to waste due to the coronavirus pandemic, as it projects the country’s dues will soar to 200.8 percent of gross domestic product this year, with a primary budget deficit at 5.1 percent of GDP after five years of primary surpluses, according to the Fund’s Fiscal Monitor report released on Wednesday.
The head of the IMF’s European Department, Poul Thomsen, told a press conference on Wednesday that Greek economic growth will suffer a huge blow this year because the country is heavily reliant on tourism, shipping and transport and because it has many small and medium-sized enterprises.
Clear and decisive answers to persistent press questions about the time of the gradual lifting of restrictive measures against the coronavirus are still pending, said the Health Ministry’s coronavirus spokesman and infectious diseases professor Sotiris Tsiodras on Wednesday evening.
Greek Health Ministry spokesman Sotiris Tsiodras said it is “too soon” to relax measures despite Greece’s relative success in containing the virus’ spread.
Speaking at the televised briefing on the latest facts and figures, he said that lifting restrictive measures in Greece «must occur at the right time,» and he added that the country’s health authorities intend to continue to monitor the disease. With elderly people often living under the same roof and looking after young children in Greek families, Tsiodras said, reopening schools «is a very serious decision.»
Countries that have made a move in that direction have taken “very small steps” with stringent rules, he noted. Deputy Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias added that there will be no exemptions to restrictions over Orthodox Easter this weekend and that visits to friends and relatives are not allowed.
The number of Covid-19 infections in Greece rose to 2,192 with 22 new cases on Wednesday. The official death toll rose to 102, with unconfirmed reports reports later on Wednesday saying that another patient had died in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, bringing the toll to 103.
The Civil Aviation Authority announced on Wednesday that it would extend a ban on commercial flights to and from six countries until May 15 as part of the measures to halt the spread of the coronavirus in Greece.
According to the notice to airmen (NOTAMS) issued by the authority, the ban concerns Italy, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Germany.
Citizens who do not have digital skills and have no access to the gov.gr digital portal will be able to receive certificates via email, courier, but also by phone call, Digital Governance Deputy Minister Giorgos Georgantas, said to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA).
More than 80 roads in neighborhoods around Athens will have been resurfaced by the end of April, according to a statement Wednesday by the municipality, which is making the most of the drop in vehicle traffic as it allows crews to work day and night.
Moreover, the statement said that a tender for a large-scale road resurfacing project, worth 42 million euros, was completed in late February and work is expected to start within the year. The project is the largest of its kind tendered by the municipality.
Confirmed cases worldwide top 2 million. The latest numbers from Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the spread of the virus, put the confirmed global total of cases at 2,063,161. The researchers say at least 136,938 people have died since the start of the outbreak.
The US reports more than 25,000 new cases. Washington’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported 605,390 cases of coronavirus – an increase of 26,385 cases from its previous count – and said the number of deaths has risen by 2,330 to 24,582.
US president Donald Trump says some states may reopen before 1 May. There were governors “champing at the bit” to reopen, he said. Trump also reiterated the decision to halt funding to the World Health Organization.
The head of the WHO said he regrets US President Donald Trump’s decision to pull funding for the agency, but that now is the time for the world unite in its fight against the new coronavirus.
And the weather forecast…
Sunny in Attica today with the temperature expected to reach a maximum of 13 degrees Celsius.
