With coronavirus cases rising steeply for a third straight day in Greece, officials are poised to open what some are describing as a war chest of measures in a bid to contain infection rates, writes Helena Smith, the Guardian’s Athens correspondent.
New precautionary steps are likely to be announced on Monday when the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, holds talks via teleconference with expert scientists and health officials.
In a surprise step last night the country’s deputy civil protection minister, Nikos Hardalias, announced a ban on customers standing in entertainment venues including nightclubs, bars and restaurants will be extended until 31 August – one of many moves aimed at avoiding crowds coalescing.
Church litanies will also be suspended ahead of the country gearing up for the Dormition of the Virgin Mary on 15 August, one of the most important religious festivals in the Orthodox calendar and a celebration that spurs a mass exodus of Greeks to the countryside.
In a third measure, visitors from Malta will also need to prove they have tested negative for Covid-19 at least 72 hours prior to arrival as of next Tuesday.
“We have at our disposal a lot of measures that we can use before deciding to enforce lockdown,” he was cited as saying by Protothema, a leading Greek daily.
On Friday, Greek health authorities reported that those testing positive for the virus had surpassed 150 for a third straight day. Speaking from Rhodes, Mitsotakis said it was crucial the outbreak was nipped in the bud before transmission rates spun out of control.
“I want to emphasise that this is not in its essence an imported increase,” insisted the leader who had previously blamed complacency among the public-at-large for the rise in infections rather than travellers from overseas entering Greece.
Infection rates exceeded 5,000 this week in a nation that until now had been a rare success story in its handling of the virus.
But in what will go down as the strangest summer in modern times, Athens has also begun to see the beginnings of a tourism revival.
The sight of foreign visitors filling bars and eateries in the city centre has sparked hope that at least some of the tourist season can be salvaged in a country so heavily reliant on the sector.
Greece, which derives almost a quarter of its GDP from tourism, is forecast to see its economy contract by at least 6% on account of the loss of tourism earnings, according to the International Monetary Fund. Releasing its External Sector Report 2020 earlier this week, the organisation predicted that after Thailand Greece will be heaviest hit by the tourism slowdown globally.
