Nikos Hardalias:"There are no plans for a general lockdown"
coronavirus
21 Jul 2020
/ 14:08
ATHENS. New weekly coronavirus updates begin with Civil Protection Deputy Minister - In first 20 days of July about 128,000 tourist out of 920,000 were tested - Between 1 -19 July there were 295 confirmed cases, of which 53 are still active.
Updates on coronavirus from Civil Protection Deputy Minister Nikos Hardalias returned this afternoon, Tuesday 21 July.
"The purpose of the weekly updates is to provide the latest information regarding the reopening of the borders and how efforts are developing, " said Nikos Hardalias at the beginning of his presentation.
He said that since the first case in Thessaloniki there have been a total of 4,007 cases, 435 are active, 1,030 have been discharged, 2,347 recovered at home and 195 have died.
Referring to the restart of tourism, Mr Hardalias said, "We said that we are reopening the country to tourism in safety. We knew that there will be imported cases and we based our actions on epidemiological data."
The Deputy Minister presented the data for the first 19 days since the borders reopened.:
"From 1 - 19 July 918,032 people have entered Greece. 620,652 at airports, 48,720 at ports and 248,660 by land.
The number of arrivals who were tested during that period is 127,900. 98,284 at airports, 6,119 at ports and 23,497 at land borders.
The total number of confirmed cases amongst the arrivals during that period is 295. 53 are still active, 35 recovered and the remainder returned.
76% of the imported cases are from Balkan countries with Serbia having the greatest number of positive cases."
Regarding arrivals from the UK he said, "2 - 3 positive cases came from London via another airport. However, at the moment we aren't concerned about UK arrivals."
The Deputy Minister said that we should all be alert and said, "On our holidays we can have relaxation but we mustn't relax with regard to adherence to the measures."
When asked about orphan cases he said, "For every case that is confirmed we do contact tracing and the procedure isn't complete until every contact traced is isolated."
"There are cases which are connected to the 1st and 2nd degree with fellow citizens who have come in contact with cases from abroad."
Mr. Hardalias made it clear that "There is no plan for a general lockdown and we consider it difficult to have local lockdowns - what we want is targetted measures."
"As long as we realise that we hold our fate in our own hands along with the measures from the state I believe that we will gradually return to normality," he said.
The Deputy Minister said that "From 1 - 19 July there were 7,379 checks on businesses and fines were imposed and businesses temporarily shut down. We are continuing with the checks, not because we want to impose punishments but because we want to ensure that the measures are being adhered to."
There will be updates from the Civil Protection Deputy Minister every week on Tuesday.
"The purpose of the weekly updates is to provide the latest information regarding the reopening of the borders and how efforts are developing, " said Nikos Hardalias at the beginning of his presentation.
He said that since the first case in Thessaloniki there have been a total of 4,007 cases, 435 are active, 1,030 have been discharged, 2,347 recovered at home and 195 have died.
Referring to the restart of tourism, Mr Hardalias said, "We said that we are reopening the country to tourism in safety. We knew that there will be imported cases and we based our actions on epidemiological data."
The Deputy Minister presented the data for the first 19 days since the borders reopened.:
"From 1 - 19 July 918,032 people have entered Greece. 620,652 at airports, 48,720 at ports and 248,660 by land.
The number of arrivals who were tested during that period is 127,900. 98,284 at airports, 6,119 at ports and 23,497 at land borders.
The total number of confirmed cases amongst the arrivals during that period is 295. 53 are still active, 35 recovered and the remainder returned.
76% of the imported cases are from Balkan countries with Serbia having the greatest number of positive cases."
Regarding arrivals from the UK he said, "2 - 3 positive cases came from London via another airport. However, at the moment we aren't concerned about UK arrivals."
The Deputy Minister said that we should all be alert and said, "On our holidays we can have relaxation but we mustn't relax with regard to adherence to the measures."
When asked about orphan cases he said, "For every case that is confirmed we do contact tracing and the procedure isn't complete until every contact traced is isolated."
"There are cases which are connected to the 1st and 2nd degree with fellow citizens who have come in contact with cases from abroad."
Mr. Hardalias made it clear that "There is no plan for a general lockdown and we consider it difficult to have local lockdowns - what we want is targetted measures."
"As long as we realise that we hold our fate in our own hands along with the measures from the state I believe that we will gradually return to normality," he said.
The Deputy Minister said that "From 1 - 19 July there were 7,379 checks on businesses and fines were imposed and businesses temporarily shut down. We are continuing with the checks, not because we want to impose punishments but because we want to ensure that the measures are being adhered to."
There will be updates from the Civil Protection Deputy Minister every week on Tuesday.
