Museums in Greece cautiously reopen on Monday

Museums in Greece will reopen on Monday with strict measures in place.

The Public National Health Organization (EODY) and the Ministry of Culture & Sports have collaborated extensively to ensure that a 2 meters indoors - 1.5 meters outdoors - distance among all visitors is observed at all times, alongside the mandatory use of protective face masks and an eight-people group tour maximum.

Acropolis Museum President, Professor Dimitris Pantermalis, told ANA that "the closure of the Acropolis Museum was not only unpredictable, it was a huge shock (...), but ultimately this downtime became rather creative." He said that a lot of maintenance work was carried out as were improvements in infrastructures and lighting, so that now "we are moving towards the opening of the museum completely renewed."

As a precautionary measure to help control the spread of the deadly virus, museums and archaeological sites in Greece were closed on March 13.

Director of the National Archaeological Museum Maria Lagogianni told ANA that "we want to ensure employees feel and actually are safe, but also that visitors can enjoy the museum knowing that their health safety is not at risk." Following the advice of health experts, strictly scheduling visits and controlling the flow of visitors is the best way to offer a safe tour in the museum, she underlined.

Greece’s archaeological sites reopened to the public with new visitor rules on May 18, which became the talk of global media outlets.

“Acropolis sparkles in the sun as Greek tourist spots reopen,” is the headline of a Reuters report. It states that Greece has reopened the Acropolis, museums and other major tourist attractions as the coronavirus lockdown is relaxing.

*Image Credit: Acropolis Museum