April 20 Statistics from the Greek Ministry of Health on the evening of April 19 showed that Greece added 1607 new cases of coronavirus pneumonia on the same day, with a total of 316,879 confirmed cases, Euronews reported. The number of deaths from the new coronavirus increased by 78 in 24 hours, bringing the cumulative death toll to 9,540.
Since April 19, the Greek government has reportedly removed the quarantine of passengers from five non-EU countries, the European Union and the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Serbia and Israel, who have vaccination certificates or negative reports of nucleic acid tests. Greek authorities hope to find loopholes in their policies before the tourist season kicks off on May 14th by gradually liberalising restrictions on the entry of tourists.
Citizens from the above-mentioned areas will also be allowed to enter Greece through nine airports in Athens, Thessaloniki, Heraklion, Hania, Rhodes, Kos, Mykonos, Santorini and Corfu.
Greece’s land border posts, Promahonas and Nifia, have also reopened since April 19th, allowing visitors with 72-hour certificates of negative nucleic acid testing to enter the country. In the past few months, border stations have allowed only commercial trucks to pass through.
Greek Tourism Minister Theo Harris recently visited Moscow and met with Russian government officials and representatives of the tourism industry. Both sides agreed to work on technical details of mutual recognition of vaccination certificates in order to exempt Russian tourists from quarantine when they enter the country.
Mr. Demura, general manager of TUI Russia, said the company would bring at least 300,000 visitors to Greece this summer, but only if it reopened in mid-May without segregating them.
In addition, the Greek government is expected to lift cross-regional travel restrictions on may 14. Before Easter in Greece, Greek medical experts on whether to allow people to return home and travel across the region, some experts believe that the outbreak has not yet eased, if people are allowed to travel across the region, may spread the coronavirus; A decision is expected by the end of the week.
In addition, Greece’s coronavirus self-test measures are being carried out in more industries. From 19 April, some public and private sector employees will have to conduct a weekly self-test for the coronavirus. Private sector employees included in the mandatory self-test include: retail, hospitality, tourism and transportation, cleaning services, hairdressing and manicures, and bookmakers.
Public agency employees included in the mandatory self-test include citizens’ service centers (KEPs), municipalities, courts, cleaning services, and “domestic” service planners.
As with the measures for high school teachers and high school students to receive self-test boxes, eligible persons can receive self-test boxes free of charge at pharmacies with social security number AMKA. Self-test results must be declared self-testing.gov.gr a dedicated platform. If the test results are positive, a second nucleic acid test, if positive results are confirmed, must be forced to self-isolation for 14 days.
