News archive of May 2020

Hundreds of taxis in Istanbul will provide free ride to health care staff, who work at the city's public hospitals under a scheme coordinated by the governor's office and the provincial directorate of health.

Management and staff at the country's biggest hospitals met on Wednesday to discuss the gradual return to a pre-coronavirus rate of activity, with most planning to resume postponed operations from next week.

"The number of visitors and tourism revenue in Turkey decreased during the first quarter because of the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, officials statistics showed on April 30. 

The number of visitors declined 67.83% to 718,097 in March, compared to a year ago, according to Turkey's Culture and Tourism Ministry.

The Turkish Treasury will repay debts worth 88.3 billion Turkish liras (some $12.64 billion) in the May-July period, the Treasury and Finance Ministry announced on April 30. 

The Treasury will repay 36 billion Turkish liras ($5.15 billion) in external debts, including 6.3 billion Turkish liras ($901.7 million) in interest payments.

Unions in Greece gathered up for their annual Labor Day rallies in central Athens though events were scaled back due to the coronavirus lockdown.

Ahead of the rallies, organisers wearing red scarves placed road markings pointing to the correct distances that protesters should keep.

For the first time in Turkey, a novel coronavirus patient, who received immune plasma treatment, recovered from
COVID-19.

Global coronavirus fatalities exceeded the 230,000 mark on April 30, according to a running tally by U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.

The university's data counted 230,615 deaths, while the numbers of cases and recoveries stand at 3,247,648 and 1,004,483, respectively.

Out of the spotlight, companies linked with Bojan Kisic secured lucrative contracts with several state companies and ministries, including a three-million-euro deal to maintain Serbia's integrated health information system. The software handles the most sensitive private information of the Serbian public health-care system. 

The U.N.-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) in Libya on April 30 said it rejected the unilateral truce call made by its arch-enemy, renegade commander Khalifa Haftar -- the warlord of the armed forces based in the east. 

As millions of home-bound social distancers worldwide have turned to online and streaming offerings to stave off boredom amid coronavirus lockdowns, Turkey too has turned to its screen offerings from foreign series to Broadway shows, and from fitness routines to gourmet cooking.

Foreign residents of Turkey's capital Ankara have gotten the live streaming cooking bug too.