Greece closes its border to Serbian citizens from all points of entry from Monday, July 6, until July 15, 2020, due to increase of coronavirus cases recorded in Serbia.
Deputy Government Spokeswoman Aristotleia Peloni said in a statement issued on Sunday (July 5):
“Based on the analysis of the epidemiological data, it was decided to suspend, from Monday, 06/07/2020, at 06:00 am. and until 15/07, the access of Serbian citizens to Greece, from all points of entry without exception. The only exception is the essential reasons for passing.”
The statement added that “the government, in cooperation with experts, is closely monitoring and will continue to do so on a daily basis, the evolution of epidemiological circles in the European Union and in the rest of the world.
In this context, Greece, in cooperation with its European Union partners, reserves the right to review its policy.
The government, in cooperation with the relevant services, is constantly analyzing and evaluating the data, so that the opening to foreign visitors is done without discounts on public health “.
A similar statement was published by Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, who urged citizens planning to travel to Greece not to do so.
Serbian Minister of Tourism, Trade and Telecommunications, Rasim Ljajic, confirmed the border closure to news network B92.
Speaking to private N1 TV, Ljajic said that “Greece closes its borders due to the epidemiological situation in Serbia and “many Serbian tourists were tested positive.”
It is recalled that on Friday the government in Serbia declared a state of emergency for Belgrade, imposing quarantine measures, after the outbreak of coronavirus.
In addition to Belgrade, four other Serbian cities have been in a state of emergency since last Monday.
Serbians love spending their summer vacations in Greece, and thousands have been flocked in since the country opened its borders mostly via the Promachonas border-crossing. Serbian holidaymakers are mostly in Halkidiki, and west Macedonia.
Health teams of the National Health Organization are conducted COVID-19 tests at all points of entry into the country, including the Promachonas border-crossing to Bulgaria.
Greece has struggled to push Serbia through the list the EU recently approved as which non-EU countries would be allowed to enter the block on July 1. Brussels was considering Serbia’s data with regards to coronavirus as not trustworthy.
PS Closing the borders is certainly a big blow to local tourism businesses.
Great, you are playing with us the hole time, everywhere in Europe numbers are rising and Serbia is the only problem? If we are smart like we are not to close our borders so we will see who will come from eu to Greece and usually is going this way. Shame on you Greece!
Open the Evzonoi for EU and Serbia, as Serbia now fights this issue with new 500 beds and many respirators. Serbia has more infected because they test more than all the other countries around Serbia, beside that it is known that there is a lot of “false positive” with slight increase of temperature from the road trip and waiting up to 11hours at Promachonas because of Greek government closing Evzonoi border to the whole EU and Serbs. Not everyone wants to go to “Promachonas” as they make a very big circle, Evzonoi is more near and better to go south and west of Greece for instance to Lefkada. Are you serious Greeks?! Beside that a lot of Greeks were in Serbia and noone told that it is Greeks fault for increasing of positive people, while in Greece you act just like if you are better than Serbs and that Serbs are the only one to blame. You are the same Balcan people so stop the hypocrite shit, you like buying fuel from Northern Macedonia through Evzonoi and then closing borders with North Macedonia because “you can”. A total shame and stupid political games.
The Serbs have president Aleksandar Vucic to thank for that. Because of the elections two weeks ago, he lifted the restrictions as a political stunt to win votes. So all these good efforts to contain the virus were all for nothing. He won the elections but infections went up and now new restrictions are back in place.
But the Greeks are also not fair. Citizens from European countries with the most infections and the most dead are allowed in: the UK, Germany and Sweden. Not fair and you may lose Serb tourism in the future.
I did cancel my vacation in Greece 7 days ago, since I correctly predicted following facts:
– number of cases in Serbia would rise, since President needed to have elections no matter what (also big thanks to Djokovic family). Also government does not take decisive actions this time (economic interests of the brother of our president). I expect these numbers will reach 1000 per day within next 2 weeks.
– negotiation between UK and Greece on opening the borders were in progress. In case event of successful agreement, it was clear the that Greece with its limited testing capacity, will prefer potentially infected British to potentially infected Serbian tourists: therefore the testing capacity had to be freed.
Do not get me wrong I think the decision to close border to citizens of Serbia was correct, but reopening for British brings this risky game to a whole new level.
It will be interesting to observe the outcome of this airlift experiment especially on the returning leg, given the well known behavior patterns.
Somehow I doubt the accuracy of the official numbers in UK, given the fact the country did try to gain herd immunity in its initial response , and “corrected” death number in thousands several times (e.g. senior homes were not counted).
Also, thumb up for Johnson, who had 2 dedicated nurses (and god knows how many doctors) in intensive care unit, excellent example on how you “lead” by example.
You want to say that british money are better then serbian? The numbers are rising everywhere, Croatia, Rumunia, Montenegro, UK…and Serbia is the problem? Not all of us are “tomato tourists” and I was ready to leave 5000€ for my vacation in Crete and Santorini. When you read comments about restaurants or renting umbrellas, somehow british are always complaining how it is expensive…and only serbs are labeled as monsters. Our corona is probably worse then one from uk? And noone is thinking about people in northern Greece who are living from Serbian tourists? This decision is not bad only for Serbs, but for Greeks too.