News in brief

The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Thursday that the coronavirus pandemic was becoming «a human rights crisis.»
In a video message, the UN chief said that there is discrimination in the delivery of public services to tackle COVID-19 and «structural inequalities that impede access to them.»
The pandemic has also seen «disproportionate effects on certain communities, the rise of hate speech, the targeting of vulnerable groups, and the risks of heavy-handed security responses undermining the health response,» Guterres said.

Global infections have passed 2.7 million, with deaths standing at just under 191,000. The US leads infections with 869,000, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker, then daylight before Italy on 213,000. The US also leads global deaths at 49,954. The next worst affected countries are Italy on 25,549 deaths, Spain on 22,157 and France on 21,856.

Medical experts have widely condemned Donald Trump’s musings at the White House briefing this morning about whether disinfectant and UV rays could be used on people to fight the virus. It followed a briefing by Bill Bryan, who heads the science and technology directorate at the Department of Homeland Security, presenting information on how the virus reacts to heat, humidity and light on surfaces and when it is airborne.
Donald Trump said the US may extend federal social distancing guidelines to the northern summer.

An Athens prosecutor on Thursday launched an investigation into whether criminal charges should be brought against the management of a private clinic in Peristeri, western Athens, after at least 29 people – 18 patients and 11 employees – tested positive for Covid-19.

“This virus is very easily transmitted and especially in health facilities,” Health Ministry spokesman Sotiris Tsiodras said.

The death toll of coronavirus in Greece stands at 127, while 52 patients are treated in ICUs.

There was also concern Thursday about the Attica Police Headquarters (GADA), as 15 officers from GADA and a police station in Oropos, eastern Attica, were quarantined after it emerged that they had come into contact with an asylum seeker who tested positive for the coronavirus.

Despite recent concern about several outbreaks of the coronavirus in recent days, Tsiodras said that, overall, Greece’s containment efforts are holding, while noting however that “things can easily slip.”

Greece announced an extension of the restrictions imposed to stem the spread of the coronavirus by a week until May 4.

A plan for injecting billions of euros of emergency aid into Europe’s battered economies has been agreed by EU heads.
Meeting via video, they agreed to set up a massive recovery fund, closely tied to the bloc’s seven-year budget.
They also confirmed that €540bn of financial support would be released through existing mechanisms from 1 June.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the fund would mobilise €1 trillion of investment.

Greece fully supports the urgent establishment of a recovery fund, in addition to the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), which will focus primarily on grants to European Union member-states rather than loans, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed during Thursday’s EU leaders summit.

Supermarket schedule changes from tomorrow (Saturday) until May 9th. They will be open daily from 7am to 9pm and on Saturdays from 7am to 8 pm.

And the weather forecast…

Sunny in Attica today with the temperature expected to reach a maximum of 17 degrees Celsius.