ATHENS, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The Greek Health Ministry announced on Tuesday that ten new COVID-19 cases were diagnosed and one more patient died since Monday, bringing its total infections to 2,892 and fatalities to 173 since the start of the outbreak in the country on Feb. 26.

Among the new confirmed cases are three asylum seekers living in an accommodation facility in the town of Kranidi in the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece.

Authorities imposed a 14-day lockdown on the facility for the second time. The accommodation was previously quarantined in April after 153 people tested positive for the virus.

Currently 18 people were being treated in intensive care units (ICUs), while 101 have been discharged from ICUs.

So far the authorities have conducted a total of 160,991 diagnostic tests.

"Greece managed to flatten the curve with fewer casualties in comparison to other countries", said Sotirios Tsiodras, the Health Ministry's spokesperson for the pandemic, regarding the six-week lockdown period imposed by the Greek government.

Greece was under full lockdown from March 23 as part of the measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic. Since May 4, the government has started gradually lifting the restrictions.

Tsiodras announced on Tuesday the end of the televised press briefings on the development of the coronavirus spread after 72 days of regular announcements for the public.

For his part, Nikos Hardalias, deputy minister for Civil Protection and Crisis Management at the Ministry of Citizen Protection, pointed out that "if you see us doing a live briefing again, this will mean that things have not gone well."

Regarding the tourism sector, which is one of the last sectors which has not restarted yet, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Tuesday that international direct flights to the city of Thessaloniki in northern Greece will start on June 15, in addition to direct flights to Athens international airport. Direct international flights to the rest of the country will begin on July 1 as initially planned.

Also, the country's land borders will open for road tourism by June 15, the Greek prime minister said during a visit to Thessaloniki, according to an e-mailed press statement from his office. Enditem

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