Greece Greece aims to reopen restaurants early next month, state minister George Gerapetritis said on Wednesday, as the country is desperate for more economic sectors to resume operations ahead of its vital summer tourist season.
Greece, which coped relatively well during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, was forced to tighten restrictions late last year to combat a surge in cases, with hospitals around Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki struggling to cope.
More than half of all new cases each day are reported in that region.
“Our intention is to have a coordinated opening of the restaurants after Easter,” the minister told state television ERT, adding that customers would be allowed to dine outdoors.
Greek Orthodox Easter falls on May 2.
The government began a massive distribution of free home testing kits this month to reopen senior high schools and some services as it is keen to get the situation sufficiently under control before the start of the tourist season on May 14.
Health authorities on Tuesday reported 3,789 daily cases of COVID-19 and 87 deaths. Total cases and deaths have reached 320,629 and 9,627 respectively. [reuters]
PS PM Mitsotakis is to make a statement at 6 pm Wednesday and probably announced a road map of reopening of economic and other activities.
Looking ahead, it is clear that there should be a noticeable reduction in reported covid cases over Easter, simply because the “normal” weekend low testing numbers could be extended to as many as five consecutive days from Good Friday to a reallocated May Day.
These numbers could well coincide with the UK’s announcement on travel restrictions, including if some are lifted on May 17th, whether Greece is green or amber.
The numbers could also “justify” the Greek government’s easing / ending of lockdown such as all children going back to school, shops fully opening with just customer number restrictions, both systems of SMS finishing, being allowed to drive anywhere for any reason, unrestricted travel to and from islands, masks not being required on organised beaches, restaurants, bars and cafes being open outside, no night time curfew or any other time limitations for any reason.
If you consider all of this potentially happening within 10 days of the end of the Easter holiday period, couple it with the effects of the inevitable socializing that will still take place over Easter, then whilst any significant impact may not be immediately noticed prior to May 14th, for me the area to watch has to be the future balance between PCR and rapid testing as that, as can clearly be currently seen, can impact on reported case numbers and the positivity rates of the tests.
Its almost as if the Greek economy relies on Tourism (which in part it does) but the Government doesn’t want to admit it… Just be honest and say we’re lifting restrictions so we can let tourists in over summer, not pretend it is because the cases are dropping..
The country has been in lockdown far too long and the number of cases over the last 6 months has barely changed