A live music concert with 2,000 people in a beach bar of Halkidiki peninsula triggered lots of coronavirus infections in the neighboring Thessaloniki including 33 elderly in a nursing home. According to locals media, three of the bartenders were tested positive.
President of Medical Association of Halkidiki, Marios Pyrpasopoulos told media that tracking contacts of infected people lead to big beach bars in the first leg of the peninsula in northern Greece.
“It it the beach bars where we had the infections, there were big parties, but now they have been stopped because police is conducting control checks,” he added. He described the situation as “not worrying.”
The live concert with a Greek singer in Hanioti village has produced a lot of infections mainly among young people.
Many of contact tracking lead to this beach bar, note local media halkidikinews, adding that the party took place on August 2. Many of the infected are asymptomatic.
The country’s top epidemiologist, Professor for Infectious Diseases Sotiris Tsiodras who visited the elderly home on Wednesday afternoon, stated that the primary infection was through an employee who was in close contact with one of the participants at the concert.
Meanwhile, the prosecutor of Thessaloniki ordered investigation into the care home infections.
Relatives of elderly told media that the facility was keeping the safety measures and that no visitors were allowed according to the new restrictions imposed last Monday throughout Greece.
Yesterday 33 elderly and 3 employees were confirmed positive. Initially 7 patients were transferred to hospital. Today, another 7 are to be hospitalized, ANT1 TV reported.
+++ Early afternoon Wednesday, two elderly women aged 88 and 91 died in hospitals in Thessaloniki.
According to local media, the facility has been placed in 7-day quarantine.
The parties, oh, these parties!
Meanwhile on social media, there is a big dispute about “personal responsibility” and parties at beach bars. One side says that it’s the government to blame as its has not banned them. The other side blames the youngsters for defying protection measures and ignores the risk they pose for the society in general and the vulnerable in particular.
The state also accuses the young ones.
And the businessmen blame the economic situation due to the pandemic, the protection measures and often also the artists who “demand high salaries” despite the current situation.
A well-known businessman in the entertainment sector told local media thestival, “Artists should also decrease their financial demands. It is not possible to ask for €20,000 for one concert. Where will this money come from? Entrepreneurs are forced to allow more people in their facilities in order to avoid going bankrupt. We give feed thousands of families.”
Even if the government forbade restaurants, bars and cafes to operate after midnight in several regional units including tourist destinations like Zakynthos or Crete, now people leave the facilities and crowd in the promenades and the beaches.
PS It is difficult to tame Greeks and tourists in the hot summer Greek nights.
