Tourists visit the Parthenon at the Acropolis archaeological site in Athens, Greece. (Source: Reuters) In order to attract tourists back to the beautiful islands, Greece has sent the country’s Tourism Minister Harry Theoharis 3 days to the UK to convince one of the biggest tourist markets of “ The land of myths .” According to the announcement of Greece, Minister Theoharis will meet with British Foreign Secretary Nigel Adams to discuss the tourism market in the context that Greece is gradually easing travel restrictions. It is expected that Mr. Theoharis will also work with British Airways, EasyJet and Jet2 – airlines that have regular flights to Greece. In 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic occurred, there were about 3.5 million British tourists on vacation in Greece and now the country wants to attract visitors from “The Land of the Mist”. blind” returns to the beautiful Greek islands in the coming months after gradually easing restrictions and blockade measures that have been imposed for months to combat the COVID-19 epidemic. Tourism contributes a quarter of the Greek government’s annual revenue, and Athens wants to convince tour operators that the country is safe to visit. Earlier, on May 10, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, after talks with his Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez, emphasized that Athens is one of the first capitals of the EU, along with Madrid, to support the idea of ​​a “vaccination certificate” to allow the resumption of tourism. Despite imposing a partial blockade since November 7 last year, Greece is still recording more than 1,500 cases COVID-19 /day, mainly in Athens, in which there are dozens of deaths and hospitals are always overloaded. In order to restart tourism, which has fallen into stagnation, since the beginning of April, the country has gradually reopened non-essential shops and cafes. On May 10, all schools were allowed to reopen after 6 months of closure. Under the new rules, students and teachers will have to self-test for the virus twice a week. Nearly a month ago, the 7-day quarantine rule was lifted for all visitors from the EU, the US, UK , Israel, Serbia, United Arab Emirates and some other countries. However, the UK has so far ranked Greece on the “amber travel list,” meaning Britons returning home from Greece must undergo at least five days of quarantine. At the highest level, the “travel red list” requires returnees to be isolated for 10 days.

German police check vehicles in the border area. (Photo: AFP / VNA)

The Czech news agency (ČTK) reported that Germany would end the measures border control long-term with the Czech Republic, which has been applied since February 14, due to serious epidemics.

Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Germany Tomáš Kafka said the representative of the German Ministry of Interior informed the Czech diplomatic mission of the decision.

Ambassador Kafka welcomed this decision by the German side, saying that this was not only a step towards a return to normal in Czech-German relations, but also an encouragement in a joint effort to control COVID-19 translation.

German Interior Ministry spokesman Steve Alter said the country was transitioning from a permanent border control regime to random inspection after it found that the disease situation in the Czech Republic had improved significantly. Accordingly, the standing border force will finish the mission at 0:00 on April 15.

However, Mr. Alter stressed that Germany will continue to implement quarantine measures through intensive random inspection in the area. German-Czech border.

Germany has resumed regular border controls with the Czech Republic and the Austrian state of Tyrol since February 14 to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

At that time, Germany had identified both of these regions with a high infection rate variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Germany then stopped long-term border control with the state of Tyrol since the end of March, but has extended this measure to the Czech Republic so far.

On April 14, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said it would extend a series of measures to protect tenants – a group of people believed to be vulnerable, in the context of the COVID epidemic- 19 has a heavy impact on the economy.

These measures will be extended for another Three months.

Under current regulations, tenants will not have a rent increase or termination and may apply for a temporary or partial rent delay if the owner is more than 10. real estate unit, having more than 1,500 square meters of real estate, or being a public institution. They can also renew the lease for an additional six months under the same conditions.

In place since the early days of the epidemic crisis in March 2020, the measures above have been repeatedly extended and will expire on May 9, when the national emergency ends.

During the last year against the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of thousands of people in Spain lost their jobs, prompting the government to expand social protection measures.

In Ukraine, the capital Kiev will also extend the blockade until April 30, after the number of deaths and new infections by day continues to increase despite the strict restrictions imposed in March. by.

Medical staff treating patients COVID-19 at a hospital in Lviv, Ukraine. (Photo: AFP / VNA)

According to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, the city government has no other choice because without such a decision the health system will not be able to accommodate the increasing number of patients, thereby increasing the number of patients. deaths caused by COVID-19.

Previously, to control the spread of the epidemic, Kiev restricted public transport services, closed schools, theaters and shopping centers, and banned spectators from coming to monitor events. sports events. Restaurants and cafes are only allowed to operate in the form of door-to-door delivery and recommend all government employees. work from home.

However, despite the imposition of strict restrictions, the number of new infections in Kiev is still higher than in other regions, with approximately 1,500 new infections and more than 40 deaths due to COVID-19 everyday.

Across the country, Ukraine has a total of 1.9 million cases, of which 38,225 have died since the epidemic broke out in the country last year.