International organizations

He added that it is important for citizens to go to the polls.
"Elections are an important test of democracy, and politicians must present their political platforms and discuss the vision for the future," Fabrizi said at a press conference, adding that the elections were also the topic of his conversation with Prime Minister Brnabic today.

The official data show that little if any progress has been made with regard to much-heralded efforts to reduce the numbers of migrants and refugees trapped in camps on Greek islands.

The situation actually seems to have come to a standstill right where it was even before the crisis at the Evros land border in early March.

Greece's economic slump was not as bad as expected, government spokedman Stelios Petsas said on Thursday, following the release of the GDP data by the country's statistics service (ELSTAT).

"Greece had a significantly lower recession than expected, as the GDP for the first quarter decreased by 0.9 percent," government spokesman Stelios Petsas said on Thursday.

Brazil and Mexico reported record daily coronavirus death tolls as governments in Latin America battled to fortify defenses against the accelerating pandemic with fresh lockdown orders and curfews.

Police check at the Port of Piraeus, Greece. Photo: Aggelos Barai

Just a few days earlier, on February 28, Matteo Salvini, Italy's former interior minister and leader of the country's most popular party, the right-wing League, openly accused African migrants of bringing the virus to Italy.

Internet use rose in Greece by 9 percentage points from 2017 to 2019, according to a survey by the National Center of Social Research (EKKE).

The survey, titled "World Internet Project Greece - The Internet in Greece," showed that 71% of Greeks used the internet last year, compared to 62.2% in 2017 and 59.8% in 2015.

Amid renewed tensions with Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed on Wednesday that Greece "will face all challenges with consistency, stability, confidence and always with a commitment to international law, as it always does."

Germany plans to lift a travel ban for European Union member states plus Britain, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland from 15 June provided coronavirus infection levels in those countries allow it to do so, government sources said.

A further condition is that the countries concerned open their borders to holidaymakers, the sources said.

Greece is preparing to admit tourists from all over the world this summer but will be adhering to the advice of health experts to ensure it remains a safe destination in terms of coronavirus exposure, the country's tourism minister said Tuesday.

Greece recorded 19 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, of which the 12 concerned passengers from a flight from Qatar that landed in Athens' International Airport on Monday, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

The total number of cases in the country reached 2,937, of which 55.3 percent are men.