In Greece, which has also seen a dramatic increase in coronavirus cases, authorities have announced further precautionary measures in an all-out bid to curb the spread of transmissions.
A midnight curfew on bars and restaurants was extended nationwide with businesses being ordered to adhere to the new rules in Athens and on popular islands including Paros, Antiparos, Kythera, Poros, Hydra and Aegina in the Argo-Saronic Gulf.
Public gatherings involving more than 50 people are also prohibited in areas that have registered a noticeable rise in infection rates.
As the tourist season goes into high gear – with ever more Greeks flocking to island homes and ancestral villages to mark the 15 August Dormition of the Virgin Mary, one of the biggest religious festivals in the Orthodox calendar – concerns over the spread of the virus among young people have never been higher.
A record rise in cases over the past week in Athens and Thessaloniki has been linked increasingly to younger Greeks returning from island holidays. Reports of overcrowding in bars and nightclubs have been rife. On Mykonos police have been forced to break up parties in private villas amid mounting fears of such events being “super-spreaders: of the virus.
Earlier today, as he met with health officials and senior epidemiologists to discuss developments, the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, implored younger Greeks to have their wits about them.
“I especially want to appeal to our young people. Be careful, take care of yourselves, you are not invincible and those who are not invincible, even more so, are your parents and your grandfathers and grandmothers,” he said. “I won’t tire of repeating this … so we don’t find ourselves in the unpleasant position of having to take more drastic measures than we would want to.”
A total of 6,381 cases of coronavirus have been registered in Greece, which initially won global praise for its handling of the pandemic. Health officials have reported 221 Covid-linked deaths in the Mediterranean country to date. Infection rates exceeded the 5,000 tally a week ago.
