News in brief

Clashes broke out between youth and police in the northern Athens suburb of Agia Paraskevi shortly after midnight Wednesday.
Police were sent to the area after more than 400 youth broke a government ban on public gatherings at Agiou Ioannou Square due to the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.

Police were attacked with stones and bottles by a group of unknown assailants. Police responded with tear gas.

No detentions were reported.

In a Facebook message, Agia Paraskevi Mayor Vassilis Zorbas said that more than 800 youth gathered on the square in response to a call posted on social media.
He called for government measures to protect the area against lawlessness, including “widespread drug trafficking.”

The need to make Greece a less attractive destination for migrants and refugees was noted by Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis yesterday. This was noted during a presentation of a new draftlaw for migrants, at the relevant parliamentary committee.  As he said, the two main goals of the draftlaw is to reduce flows and to limit the consequences of migrant flows in the communities where they settle until their papers are being processed by authorities.

The Health Ministry’s coronavirus spokesman and infectious diseases professor Sotiris Tsiodras on Tuesday evening pointed out that reimposing severe restrictive measures would only be necessary if new infections and deaths rise significantly across the country.

He also mentioned the significance of Hand Hygiene Day, celebrated annually on May 5, emphasizing that it is a life-saving practice. He underlined the significance of making hand hygiene a global priority, especially during the current coronavirus outbreak, and also highlighted the importance of engaging health care workers in their role in clean-hands care for the prevention of infections.

Fatalities in Greece reach 147, as a woman hospitalized at “Sotiria” passed away this morning at the age of 89.

Global confirmed cases exceed 3.65 million.

The White House wants to wind down Covid-19 taskforce. Mike Pence has confirmed that the Trump administration is reportedly looking to wind down the coronavirus taskforce in the coming weeks, even as the rate of new infections continues to rise across most of the US. Meanwhile, at least 70,847 people are now known to have died in the US, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Restaurant owners in Athens and other Greek cities joined their counterparts across Europe in holding an “empty chairs” protest to draw attention to the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic on their sector.

The re-opening of restaurants-if we continue to perform as we did in the past month-will happen on June 1st, PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis said at a teleconference meeting held yesterday with relevant ministers.

And the weather forecast…
Cloudy in Attica today with the temperature expected to reach a maximum of 27 degrees Celsius.

Listen here: