At a special live briefing on Thursday, Greek Civil Protection Deputy Minister Nikos Hardalias announced tightened covid restrictions for West Attica, including a strict curfew.
The new measures which concern the three municipalities of Aspropyrgos, Elefsina and Mandra-Idilia, will come into effect at 6am on Friday (Dec. 18), and will remain in effect for seven days.
New measures for West Attica
- Curfew from 6pm-5am. Employees are excluded from the curfew, providing that they have a signed employer certificate with them.
- The entire retail sector will remain closed, including open-air markets (laikes). Bookshops, hairdressers and barbers, nail and beauty salons, which are open with restrictions everywhere else, will also be closed. In addition, customers will not be allowed to pick up online orders (click-away method) over the next week.
- Churches and all worship places will be shut and all services banned except for funerals, which will be limited to 10 attendees.
Citizens in these municipalities will be rapid-tested en masse by the National Public Health Organization's (EODY) medical staff. Workers at local nursing homes will be rapid-tested every 5 days.
Moreover, the premises of local companies will be inspected by the National Public Health Sercive, Civil Protection and the Army.
Face masks will also be distributed to everyone in these areas, free of charge.
“This the only way to prevent the virus from spreading further and to protect our fellow citizens and our cities from the consequences of a further outbreak of the virus… We are making a stronger appeal and request that everyone and especially the residents of these areas, to be especially careful in the coming days and to respectfully observe the measures,” Hardalias added.
Greece has been on lockdown since November 7, which is scheduled to end in January 2021.
Latest covid-19 numbers in Greece
Greece recorded 1,155 new cases of COVID-19 in the latest 24-hour reporting period.
This raises the total number of cases to 128,710.
5,171 are considered to be related to travel from abroad and 37,197 are related to an already known case.
Five hundred and forty-two individuals are in ICU. Their median age is 66 years, and 165 of them are women. 77.7% have an underlying condition or are aged 70 years and above.
A total of 782 patients have been discharged from ICUs since the start of the pandemic in Greece.
The country’s pandemic death toll stands at 3,948. The median age of all was 79 years and 95.6% of the deceased had an underlying condition and/or age of 70 years or more.
