Completely nuts, absolute confusion! Greek media report on Wednesday evening that when the night curfew goes into force on November 13, take away and delivery will have to close at 8:30 pm. And this when supermarkets normally close at 9 pm and no new working hours have been imposed by the Civil Protection.
News website news247.gr, writes that the Civil Protection has clarified that “stores operating only with delivery or take away will close at 8:30 pm.”
In contrast, ANT1 TV reported on its prime time news that “only take away” will shut down but not delivery services.
The reports comes some two hours after head of Civil Protection Nikos Hardalias announced on live TV statements the night curfew from 9 pm until 5 am as a measure to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
During his live statements, Hardalias did not make any reference neither about take away nor about delivery
Anyway, the new is all over the Greek internet, Greeks on social media are upset and wonder what is the purpose of such a “stupid” measure.
So far, the Civil Protection has not made any official statement on the news that seriously threatens the good old Greek habits for a late dinner. Not to mention those who come home from work after 9 pm, those who work night shifts.
With this erratic government with its patch measures to keep a balance between public health and economy, not only we will get depressed with the lockdown and the night curfew in the dark winter months, we will go into starving.
PS I assume, until the Civil Protection takes official position the night curfew and the lockdown may have been lifted and the coronavirus effectively exterminated with vaccine shots and I will need to write 2-3 posts for a weird, silly and truly unnecessary measure.
UPDATE 1 in the end, media reported that only take away service will be closed and delivery service will be in operation until these facilities close for the night, whenever that is.
UPDATE 2 And even later, and after the social media got on fire due to this awkward measure, Head of Civil Protection Nikos Hardalias finally clarified that:
“It is out of question to ban delivery during 9 pm-5 am and we clarify that take away continues after 9 pm and during their whole operation time, however not as a “self-contain ” reason of movement and in the framework of the allowed movement during this hours.
In plain language: one can take away food only during the allowed reasons to be out of home and these are: work, health emergency and dog walking.
Don’t even think to SMS <2> – i.e. purchases – to get a Pita-Gyros with Tzatziki and fries. But you can take away them on the way back from the hospital where you took granny for an emergency.
PS after this much-ado-about-nothing Greek mentality, I think I will allow me a drink. Or two. Or three….
This is completely f’d up. It’s going too far. As someone who works nights, I depend on my ability to get some food delivery very very late. And none of this helps anything anyway, making the lockdown more lockdowny in a way that only complicates everyone’s life but doesn’t really contribute to fighting the virus is not the way to go
Buy your dinner before you go to work and heat it up in the microwave owen when you come home, how hard can it be?? What do you suggest the government should do when people just dont follow the instructions??? We all have to adjust and make sacrifices or maybe die……
Looking forward to your reply, will be interesting to read your proposals!
did you read Update Nr 2? Another government ‘firework’ to show that the government does something this one without practical sense if you consider how many people are out for take away and then take it back and we are there where we started (and I lost 2 hours of my life waiting for Hardalias to wake up and make a statement.
Still waiting for your proposals on what to do instead……
I guarantee you nobody will die from a delivery guy dropping off a souvlaki. We’d all be in ICU by now if that was the case
gov’t should have taken measures 1-2 months earlier (health experts say that too), allow tourists in summer only with covid test only, do not turn a blind eye on religious gatherings. Curfew 9-12 is unnecessary and so is this takeaway initial proposal. People crowd in the morning in the few public transport means in big cities, children crowd in schools where not efficient measures.
How many got infected via take away? the gov’t doesn’t even know because they do not do contact tracking anymore, in fact since beginning of October.
I can’t see the sense in the fact that you can’t go to the square to buy a piece of pizza, but it’s okay for countless delivery guys to ride up and down in your lift when they’ve each been to at least a dozen other apartments in their shift and picked up whatever they have on the way.
My younger brother has to go on multiple walks due to type-1 diabetes (insulin dependent), does he know have to borrow a dog to have to go on medically necessary walks? Or does he have to put a 1 and a 6?
Read the instruction number 6. as published on 07/11/20. Everyone is entitled to a walk for health. You do not need a dog to entitle you to go for a walk. We cannot walk outside of our municipality. But we CAN go for a walk, but not during the curfew hours of course.
Thank you for your response. I was wondering after curfew because in addition to his insulin, exercising helps with his blood sugar levels. He’s dependent on his insulin and exercise to keep his glucose levels stable, and sometimes it is after 9pm.
Bonkers!!!!
lockdowns dont do anything to slow down a virus, they only succeed in destroying the economy, destroying human relationships, terrorizing a whole population, and creating myriad new opportunities for petty brutality and exploitation. It’s one of the most inhuman things imaginable. The longer it goes, the less it is possible to believe that those perpetrating them are merely ‘trying to help’, but that they must be aware that their actions arent helping the stated cause. either they are that stupid, or they are doing it for some other reason. perhaps they are psychopaths drunk on power, and ’emergencies’ give them huge new opportunities for exercising that power?
and such politicians and ‘important’ people are incapable of ever admitting a mistake, so they instead double down and the people suffer. when will people say ‘enough of this abuse’?