Macedonia

Greek hoteliers are offering the government special measures to ensure easier access for tourists through Bulgarian border crossings, BNR reports, quoted by novinite.bg.

Within days, the government will adopt a final framework for ferry travel, strictly following the social distance measures.

Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva has asked the Committee on resolving historical issues between Bulgaria and North Macedonia to resume work, albeit remotely. Recently, there have been over 100 publications about Bulgaria in North Macedonia. The anti-Bulgarian theme is present in the pre-election situation in the country.

Four people were arrested on Wednesday for violating rules on operating their businesses amid the pandemic and numerous fines were issued for ignoring health rules over the last 24 hours, according to police data issued on Thursday.

Officers recorded 38 violations of minimum safety distance and face mask rules nationwide on Wednesday.

Judicial authorities in northern port city of Thessaloniki on Wednesday launched a preliminary investigation into possible medical negligence in the death by Covid-19 of a 35-year-old man last month.

Greeks by and large appeared to comply with measures designed to protect the public from coronavirus infection during the gradual easing of lockdown measures, as the Hellenic Police (ELAS) issued just 25 fines on the first day of the new relaxed rules.

As the coronavirus restrictions put much in the way of economic activity on ice, many Greek enterprises chose not to shut down but rather to shift their production to products required in the pandemic.

In March 2020, the trips of Bulgarian citizens abroad and visits of foreigners to Bulgaria registered a decline due to the suspension of international flights and the closure of the land borders because of the worldwide spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, the National Statistical Institute said in a press release.

Police are probing the cause of death of a woman whose body was found in an irrigation canal in the region of Platykambos near Larissa in central Greece on Monday.
According to comments by coroner Roubini Leontari to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency, clothes found at the scene suggested that the deceased was probably an elderly woman.

The Hellenic Police (ELAS) on Monday recorded a total of 1,611 violations of restrictions on movement imposed by the government last month, a statement said on Tuesday.
Of those transgressions, 765 were recorded in Attica, 179 in Thessaloniki, 117 on Crete, 89 on the Ionian islands, 88 in Central Macedonia and 86 in Western Greece.

The government in North Macedonia has rejected opposition accusations that has downplayed the tough preconditions that Bulgaria has set on the expected launch of EU membership talks and on the gradual solving of open issues.