Greek PM Mitsotakis : Goal a safe Easter, free summer

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday announced an easing of Covid-19 restrictions in the country, with the restaurant and café sector to open to diners (outdoors) on May 3, a day after Orthodox Easter Sunday, and with remaining schools to follow a week later.

Employees in the opened sectors will be required to report a negative self-test result, similar to a regime followed currently by high school pupils and educators, while a curfew for non-essential travel outdoors is expanded to 11 p.m.

Mitsotakis took to the national airwaves again in the afternoon to make the announcement, clarifying that Easter Sunday, a momentous holiday on Greece’s national and religious calendar, will not be celebrated in people’s native villages and provinces, a traditional spring rite.

A full opening of travel between regions in the country is set for May 15, coinciding with the official beginning of the all-important tourism in the country, as the economy continues to greatly suffer from the repercussions of months of restrictions and lockdowns aimed to curb exposure to the virus.

“We’re experiencing the last and most sensitive phase in the war with the coronavirus. I know that there is fatigue, but next to us there are new allies: vaccinations, self-tests and better weather, which make us more optimistic that this unprecedented adventure is ending,” he said.

Greece has topped the 2.5-million-mark in term of vaccinations, out of a total population of some 11 million, yet Covid-19 figures remain high, compared to numbers over the past few months in the country: the number of intubated patients is above 800, related daily fatalities also usually top 80 over the past month, and new single-day confirmed instances detected are also at roughly 3,500 on a daily basis.

“Our goal is a safe Easter and a free summer, however, the first cannot undermine the second. That’s why we mustn’t travel on Easter. Attica (the greater Athens area) and other large cities still have many Covid carriers. The mass movement of these people entails the risk of spreading the virus everywhere; and we now treatment in the provinces is difficult. We must, therefore, not only think of our vacation, but the health of the residents in the villages and our islands,” he concluded.