Greece announced additional lockdown measures on Friday afternoon as thousands of young and old citizens continue to defy the government decisions to limit movements to absolute necessary and contain the spread of coronavirus. “This is not a drill! This is a real battle! Is it so important that we all go out to our villages? Few do, but this is criminal. It is not a matter of control it is a matter of responsibility towards society,” Head of Civil Protection and Deputy Minister for Crisis Management Nikos Hardalias said during the daily briefing jointly with the spokesperson of the National Health Organization Sotiris Tsiodras.
“this is not vacations! How many times do we have to say that?” Tsiodras asked.
Hardalias threatened that there are thoughts in the government to proceed with imposing total lockdown, if Greeks continue to go flock to the parks and sea promenades or drive to their villages and the islands like they do over this weekend.
He urged visitors to the islands and the countryside to stay home and avoid any contact with the locals.
He added “strict police surveillance in public places.”
The additional measures announced on Friday are:
- Only permanent residents are allowed to travel to the islands: start 6 a.m. Saturday (March 21)
- All private sailing yachts and boats are banned from depart/dock at any Greek port: start midnight Saturday
- Open markets (laiki) will be closed on Saturday (March 21). as of next week they will work with reduced capacity at 50%.
- One customer per 15 square meters (from 10 sqm currently) in supermarkets: start Monday, (March 23)
- No visits to prisons or inmates transfers unless absolutely necessary for social reasons
Moreover, the Regional Governor of Attica decided to shut down all public parks and groves in Athens as of Friday to prevent crowding during the epidemic.
Spokesman of EODY Sotiris Tsiodras announced 31 new confirmed cases raising the total number of inflections to 495.
For 84 cases no sourc eof contamination has been identified.
Majority of infections are in Athens.
90 patients are hospitalized. Of them 20 are intubated; their average age is 72.
19 patients have been discharged from the hospitals.
“Three people died in the last 24 hours,” Tsiodras said adding that two were in Athens and one in Kozani/Kastoria. Death toll rises to 9.
More than 7,200 coronavirus tests have been conducted since the beginning of the virus outbreak.
Tsiodras said that the confirmed coronavirus case on the island of Karpathos, the first in the Dodecanese, was infected by a visitor to the island.
