Viruses

The nationwide exams for entrance into Greece's state universities, also known as the Panhellenic exams, will start in June, Education Minister Niki Kerameus said Wednesday.

She said the exams will be completed by mid July.

Kerameus said no decision has been made yet on reopening the country's schools which were shut down to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

A total of 75 signatories, including Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, have signed a letter asking social media and content-sharing platforms to preserve all data they've blocked or removed during the coronavirus pandemic and make it public for researchers and journalists in the future.

Greece's health and migration ministers were meeting Wednesday to discuss protective measures to keep the novel coronavirus from spreading in the country's migrant camps.

The meeting between Vassilis Kikilas and Notis Mitarakis at the Health Ministry was being attended by the government's chief scientific adviser on the coronavirus, Sotiris Tsiodras, and other officials.

The İzmir Chief Public Prosecutors' Office has announced that 65 inmates and arrestees in the province's Buca Prison have tested positive for COVID-19.

German weekly Die Zeit has praised the Greek government's chief scientific adviser on the coronavirus, Sotiris Tsiodras, for helping keep infections in the country at manageable levels.

"Of all places, Greece, which was considered a failed state during the euro crisis, is now doing exemplary work in the fight against the coronavirus," Die Zeit writes.

Only one person was found to be infected with the coronavirus in the latest random testing in the Republic of Cyprus, reassuring experts that they are getting closer to winning the fight against the pandemic.

The strain of the coronavirus pandemic is exposing all the flaws and shortcomings in the country's politicized and mismanaged health service.

"There is decrease in the number of those on the respirator, severe cases. Percentage of positive findings of the number of those who are being tested drops day by day, especially in Nis and its surroundings, as well as in Jagodina, Cuprija, Aleksinac and Prokuplje, wherever we had an increased percentage compared to other areas. Belgrade is at 8 percent, 7.5 percent in the whole of Serbia.

Another 9 people infected with the novel coronavirus have died, taking Romania's death toll to 507, informs the Strategic Communication Group (GCS) on Wednesday. The latest fatalities are six women and three men, aged between 32 and 83. AGERPRES (RO - author: Roberto Stan, editor: Florin Marin; EN - author: Simona Iacob, editor: Simona Klodnischi)

Residents of a lake island in Turkey live a mostly isolated live, but most importantly they are corona-free as the world grapples with the novel coronavirus. 

Mada Island is the biggest of 32 islands inside Beyşehir Lake in Isparta and Konya provinces in southwestern Turkey. It is 250 kilometers from Turkey's tourist hub of the province of Antalya on the Mediterranean coast.