The union of Police officers in Greece has raised serious safety issues on Thursday after three police officers died of Covid-19 since the beginning of the month.
The latest fatality, a 55-year-old officer was intubated and passed away in the early morning hours of Thursday. He had been was hospitalized in Katerini, west Macedonia, since mid-November. The father of of two was serving at the police station of Katerini.
A 52-year-old police officer from Pella died on December 1, and a 50-year-old in Komotini a day later.
The Union denounced that officers pay Covid-tests from their own pockets and are put on duty even if they are tested positive.
Speaking to Open TV, the president of the Panhellenic Federation of Police Officers POASY Grigoris Gerakarakos said that officers pay for tests out of their own pockets. The service does sampling tests and not for everyone. The services are too many and the tests are not enough “, noted the president of POASY,
He mentioned the example of a senior officer who had a positive case in his home and did not isolate but continue to his duty as usual.
Gerakakos added that “while police officers are involved in direct contacts with citizens as they carry out control checks, there is no mechanism for colleagues to be tested. ”
There have been mass infections of police officers in western Greece, media reported some ten days ago.
PS On their part citizens have been denouncing that police officers often do not wear masks or that when they do, the nose is outside the mask and without protection.
I have been often wondered why it is mostly men whose nose is outside the mask.
