Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday met with Pfizer Inc. Chief Executive Albert Bourla.

Amid growing concern about the continuing upward trend in coronavirus infections in Greece, the government has decided to reinstate televised briefings by its chief epidemiologist Sotiris Tsiodras and Deputy Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias.

After hitting a high of 284 on Sunday, Greece saw the number of new coronavirus infections ease to 170 on Monday, with the death toll remaining steady at 242.

Some of the strict measures imposed on Poros to limit the spread of coronavirus cases are being lifted, but the island will remain under close observation by authorities, Deputy Minister for Civil Protection Nikos Hardalias and Secretary General Vassilis Papageorgiou said on Monday.

Thessaloniki’s AHEPA hospital reopened on Saturday following a four-day closure for disinfection purposes after 14 medical and nursing staff tested positive for the coronavirus. 

When Greece receives the Covid-19 vaccine, all Greeks will be able to be inoculated for free, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Friday, adding that pupils and teachers will also get free masks when schools reopen next week.

The Covid-19 vaccine will be free of charge for all Greeks once it becomes available, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Friday during a regular meeting on the developments concerning coronavirus.

Last weekend’s fire at a plastics warehouse in the northern Athens suburb of Metamorfosi was particularly serious for public health, according to the Hellenic Cancer Society, which stressed that such facilities must operate outside densely populated areas, with strict safety standards.

The Greek government has prepared a plan to hand out free face masks to all students ahead of the new school year this fall, Interior Minister Takis Theodorikakos said on Friday.

The use of face masks will be mandatory indoors for all pupils returning to school this fall, including kindergarten, Education Minister Niki Kerameus said in Thursday, adopting the advice of the government’s expert committee on the coronavirus.

Ahead of the scheduled reopening of Greek schools on September 7, the Greek Police’s cyber crimes division has launched an investigation into certain groups on Facebook that have been exhorting parents and children to defy authorities’ demands for the mandatory use of face masks by pupils to curb the spread of Covid-19.

The feeling when you look out of the hospital window is that life is out there and it is passing you by indifferently, cold toward your small, insignificant drama. It is as if you have been immobilized in a static parallel universe.

The state may cover the cost of the Covid-19 vaccine on behalf of the insured once the doses reach Greece, Μinister Christos Staikouras said on Thursday.

Authorities have imposed new restrictions on the Aegean island of Mykonos and the northern Greek region of Halkidiki after a spike in Covid-19 cases.

Fourteen policemen from the Agios Panteleimonas precinct in central Athens were on Tuesday ordered to quarantine themselves for a seven-day period after it emerged that a man they had detained has tested positive for the coronavirus, reports said.

The AHEPA University Hospital in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, will be closed until Friday for cleaning and disinfection purposes after 14 medical and nursing staff tested positive for the coronavirus, the Health Ministry said in a statement Tuesday.

Deputy Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias on Tuesday rejected arguments that Greece’s reopening to tourism is partly responsible for the recent jump in coronavirus infections.

Teams of doctors and health professionals from the Region of Attica will set up a permanent centre at the port of Piraeus to run tests on returning holidaymakers, in an effort to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country.

 

Deputy Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias is expected to announce curfews on the popular islands of Spetses, Paros and Antiparos, in an effort to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus, according to a Greek news website on Friday.