Greece will reportedly conduct sample testing to flights passengers arriving in the country. Authorities are ready to restart tourism, in view of lifting the flights restrictions to Athens international airport “Eleftherios Venizelos” on June 15 and to all airports in the country on July 1. However, as the Deputy Minister of Civil Protection, Nikos Hardalias, underlined, this “does not mean that from July 1 we will be open to everyone.”
On the contrary, health safety protocols will be implemented, to protect both visitors and locals.
The government is reportedly considering “mapping” the flights depending on daily evaluation of the epidemiological data in the countries the travelers come from, Skai TV reported.
Countries will be divided in categories colored “red”, “orange”, “green” and “yellow”, depending on the epidemiological data (classification of confirmed cases and fatalities) of each country of origin of travelers.
On this basis, flights will be selected and passengers will undergo COVID-19 testing.
For example: for a country on the “green” category, sample testing will be conducted to 1-2 passengers in a total of 150 passengers.
In the “yellow” category 5-10 tests, in “orange” 20-30, and in “red” all passengers of a flight.
In order to implement this plan that concerns 15 airports in Greece, an equivalent number of health teams will be sent to the arrival points of foreign tourists. Each team will consist of military and National Health Organization doctors, nurses and officials from the Greek Civil Protection.
When a positive case is detected, the passenger will be placed in quarantine and so will be his direct contacts after having been traced.
Both tourism professionals and tourists are eagerly anticipating for Greece to issue the list of countries that will be allowed to send visitors as of June 15.
Presenting Greece’s tourism roadmap for 2020 on Wednesday, Tourism Minister Haris Theoharis indicative named some of the first group of some 20 countries allowed to fly to Greece such as Germany, Cyprus, Israel and Bulgaria and mentioned from “the Balkans to the Baltic” and “northern Europe.”
On the same day, he said that the UK would unlikely be on the list of the first wave of countries.
Uncertainty about possible vacations in Greece concerns also travelers from the USA and Russia as well as from Spain, Italy and France.
Minister Theoharis assured that the lists of countries allowed or not allowed will be published by the end of May.
Head of Civil Protection, Nikos Hardalias, tried to ease concerns among the Greeks for opening the country again to tourism. He said on Thursday that in 21 flights and 2,236 passengers who arrived in Athens from abroad between May 13 and 20, only one passenger was tested positive.
Hardalias underlined that this does not create complacency in the health and civil protection authorities and added that “we need vigilance and good tracking so that there is no spread of the coronavirus in the islands and the mainland.”
What ??
“For example: for a country on the “green” category. sample testing will be conducted to 1-2 passengers in a total of 150 passengers.
In the “yellow” category 5-10 tests, in “orange” 20-30. and in “red” all passengers of a flight.”
So Greece will allow flights from countries marked as red ?? OMG ! I can only think of 1 word and it starts with a M
What are the chances of travelling to skiathos from the uk from 28 august please
Leyton – In the next week they will announce when UK visitors can enter. Since your trip is end of August I think you should be OK. But sit tight for a week and lets see what they announce.
What are the chances of flying to chania from the Uk
On 28th July ?
Will i be able to fly to Crete Heraklion on july 7th?
Have they also listed what will be open to tourists yet? Or is that still to be determined? Because Greece has a lot of interesting historical attractions, UNESCO sites and museums worth visiting.
What are the countries under each category!
Other classification received from are Only 3 categories; Yellow, White and Red!