News archive of October 2020

Anti-epidemic measures are intensifying in Sofia. Mayor Yordanka Fandakova announced that the nightclubs will be closed for two weeks, and it is recommended that universities undergo permanent online training. The decision was made by the municipal crisis headquarters with the director of the Sofia Health Inspectorate, BNR reported.

Yesterday The Minister of Health issued an order imposing ban on planned operations in Sofia and five other cities and ordered 10% of the capacity of each hospital in the cities with the most patients to be allocated for the treatment of coronavirus patients.

The mayor of Turkey's metropolis Istanbul has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, an official announced on Oct. 24. 

"The health condition of our mayor, whose treatment process started at the hospital, is good," Murat Ongun, spokesman of Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, said on Twitter.

İmamoğlu also confirmed the diagnosis later in a Twitter post.

The Israel-Hellenic Forum issued a statement earlier this week condemning a spate of acts of vandalism on Jewish cemeteries and memorials this month.

The Bulgarian Medical Association insists measures against the spread of the coronavirus to be strengthened instead of stopping the planned activities of hospitals.

The dispute in Eastern Mediterranean "cannot poison other relations, it has to be encapsulated," and negotiated bilaterally between Turkey and Greece, the newly appointed Spanish ambassador to Turkey said.

Police are seeking the number two in Golden Dawn's leadership, Christos Pappas, who remained at large late last night, as convicted former MPs and members of the neo-Nazi party were transferred to prison. 

Pappas had checked in with his local police station in the northern Athens suburb of Papagou on October 1, as he was obliged to do, but has not been seen since then.

Polish President Andrzej Duda has tested positive for the coronavirus, presidential spokesperson Blazej Spychalski announced on Twitter on Saturday morning.

The president, 48, is feeling well, Spychalski wrote.

"We are in constant contact with medical services," the spokesperson wrote, without giving further details.

More than 50 million Americans have cast ballots in the US presidential election with 11 days to go in the campaign, a pace that could lead to the highest voter turnout in over a century, according to data from the US Elections Project on Friday.

The clinical trials for the AstraZeneca Oxford coronavirus vaccine -- AZD1222 -- have resumed in the United States after approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the company said on Friday (local time).