News archive of April 2020

The electronic commerce sector in Greece has proven unable to respond to the extraordinary conditions created by the measures put in place to curb the Covid-19 epidemic.

The global airline industry is facing its worst crisis ever, with the impact already obvious at Athens International Airport, which recorded a 61.3 percent year-on-year decline in passenger traffic last month.
It only served 640,000 passengers, almost a million fewer than in March 2019, with the situation worsening in the latter half of the month.

The benchmark of the Greek bourse shook off its midsession losses on Thursday to end the session with gains fueled by the positive start on US markets and the global rise in commodities, although bank stocks failed to get the memo. Turnover remained low.

The coronavirus death toll rose to 10 in the Republic on Thursday after a woman, 77, who was being treated in the Limassol General Hospital ICU succumbed to the infection, while 36 new cases were confirmed.

The woman had underlying health conditions, as did eight of the 10 total deaths recorded so far.

In one respect at least, the current health crisis presents a major opportunity, as it has served as a springboard for the digital reorganization of the state.

Numerous procedures and services that took up so much time in citizens' day-to-day lives have gone online since the start of the epidemic as a result of measures to restrict people's movements.

OPAP, Europe's fourth-biggest betting business, said it had seen almost all its revenue wiped out by the closure of its outlets due to a coronavirus lockdown in Greece and Cyprus.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, his Norwegian counterpart Erna Solberg and 11 other national leaders of the conservative European People's Party have written to the EPP's president, Donald Tusk, calling for the ejection from the group of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz party due to authoritarian tactics.

In a bid to further bolster their response to the coronavirus epidemic, health authorities are preparing a register of patients who have contracted the virus which is to include all the cases that have been recorded nationwide, the treatment that they were given and the progress of their health.

Piraeus Bank head George Handjinicolaou announced on Thursday he has been discharged from Attiko Hospital after successfully battling the coronavirus since mid-March.
He went on to thank the medical staff of the hospital in western Attica.

Authorities in the northern port city of Thessaloniki have warned the public to be wary of dangerous dog packs roaming the Seich Sou forest, a popular area among locals, after a recent string of attacks.