All unvaccinated restaurant and tourism workers in Greece will have to be regularly tested for COVID-19.
It’s an extension of a previously announced mandate to make those working in Greece’s tourist hotspots to test for COVID-19 twice a week.
“Our aim is that our country continues to send the message that it has been and will remain a safe tourist destination,” Greece’s Deputy Citizen’s Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias told a weekly briefing.
Greece is currently in the midst of a Delta outbreak while trying to lift restrictions and eventuate a partial revival of its crucial tourist industry over its summer season.
The announcements follow a pending nighttime curfew and music ban imposed in response to reported COVID-19 cases which are spreading quickly on Mykonos.
Minister Hardalias said the situation in Mykonos has slightly improved and that authorities will decide on extending or lifting the measures in the next coming days.
Alexis Tspiras, a former prime minister and head of the Opposition, said that restrictions enforced in Mykonos sent “a very bad signal” for Greece as a tourist destination.
With a population of 11 million, Greece has inoculated about 45% of Greeks. After ordering the vaccination of healthcare and nursing homes staff, the government urged school teachers on Thursday to get the shot in time for the start of the school year in September.
Greece reported 2,604 cases on Thursday, bringing the total to 469,042 since the pandemic broke out last year. Some 12,875 have died of COVID-related complications so far.
Source: Reuters
