ATHENS – Pent-up Greeks eager to get out of their homes during an essential lockdown aimed at preventing the spread of the COVID-19 Coronavirus will have to wait until it’s deemed safe, and could have to stay a safe distance apart for two more years.
Greek Health Ministry spokesman Sotiris Tsiodras said it is “too soon” to relax measures despite signs showing the lockdown is working to reduce the number of cases, 2,191 so far, and with 103 deaths, among the lowest in the world.
Social-distancing requires people to stay at least 1.5 meters (4.92 feet) but is being widely ignored in supermarkets where people are still allowed to go, with other permissible missions to banks, pharmacies, doctors, hospitals and essential businesses.
Some scientists have advised the distancing stay in place until 2022 which would have an even more serious impact on business, sports, and entertainment where crowds had gathered before the shutdown.
Tsiodras said a Harvard study forecasts new epidemic waves if new measures, such as vaccines and post-infection treatments, are not found until a majority of the population acquires COVID-19 immunity.
Countries that have begun easing back some restrictions, such as Austria and Denmark, have taken “very small steps” with stringent comeback rules, he noted while Deputy Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias said there will be no exemptions for Easter.
Visits to friends and relatives are not allowed for the holiday and only people who are permanent residents of villages and islands will be allowed to get there or face fines of 300 euros ($326.29) as well as the loss of their license plates for 60 days.
The number of cases rose by one on April 15, giving officials guarded optimism a turnaround is coming amid fears the virus is so aggressive that warmer weather won’t slow the onslaught and that tough measures will remain in place.
The lockdown began March 23 and is now tentatively scheduled to end or be reviewed on May 10 with Prime Minister and New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis saying any easing will be guided and medical data, not politics as in the United States.
The total number of tests to detect the virus exceeded 50,000 amongst a population of roughly 11 million while 72 people remained in critical condition and hospitalized in ICUs, most of them male with an average age of 68.
Read more at thenationalherald.com
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