Alexandroupolis

A firefighter who was swept away by floodwater during a rescue operation in a village in municipality of Alexandroupolis was found dead on Monday afternoon, local official told state-run news agency ANA-MPA.

The 46-year-old man, along with other firemen, had been called to evacuate 21 children and two teachers from a kindergarten in the community of Apalou.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday visited the National Center for Blood Donation (EKEA) which was recently equipped with molecular diagnostic systems for Covid-19.

The three cobas 8800 systems, made by Swiss diagnostics maker Roche, can test patients about 10 times faster than the company's previous test for the coronavirus.

Any decisions about lifting the lockdown measures put in place to tackle the spread of the coronavirus will be announced before April 27, when existing restrictions expire, government spokesman Stelios Petsas said Wednesday.

Five people have died from Covid-19 by this afternoon within a matter of hours bringing the death toll to 37 in Greece.

Three of the latest victims were elderly people who were being treated in Athens, Thessaloniki, and Alexandroupolis.

Greece and Bulgaria signed several memoranda of cooperation on security, economy, energy, transport, infrastructure and cross-border cooperation during the 4th Greece-Bulgaria High Level Cooperation Council in Alexandroupolis on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will on Wednesday head to the city of Alexandroupolis, northern Greece, where he will participate in the 4th Greece-Bulgaria High Level Cooperation Council.

Ahead of the Council, he will meet with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov at 10.30 a.m.

Bulgaria will buy a 20 percent stake in a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal off northern Greece as it works to move away from its almost complete dependence on gas from Russia, the government said on Wednesday.
The United States and Qatar are expected to be the main suppliers of LNG for the facility.

Prime Minister Boyko Borissov has met with U.S. Ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt on the sidelines of the 4th Thessaloniki Summit, the government press office reported.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is convening a meeting of his top security officials for Saturday to discuss a spike in migrant arrivals to the country's eastern Aegean islands from the nearby Turkish coast.

Greek police were investigating two suspects on suspicion of people-smuggling on Monday after six men thought to be migrants from Pakistan and Egypt were killed in an overcrowded vehicle that veered into a ditch off a motorway near the Turkish border.