GREECE is reducing airfares for tourists ahead of their return to the country – despite cases of coronavirus beginning to rise again. The mainland and the islands are preparing to reopen borders with direct flights resuming next Monday. Greece is also cutting transportation taxes almost in half, with VAT being reduced from 24 per cent to […]
GREECE is reducing airfares for tourists ahead of their return to the country – despite cases of coronavirus beginning to rise again.
The mainland and the islands are preparing to reopen borders with direct flights resuming next Monday.
Greece is also cutting transportation taxes almost in half, with VAT being reduced from 24 per cent to 13 per cent – which will be passed on in the form of cheap flights.
A sudden rise in infections has laid bare the risks posed by travel, however.
This week authorities announced 108 new coronavirus cases with 52 in the space of a single day, the highest number since April.
Around a third were attributed to travellers who had tested positive for the virus at Athens airport.
The resurgence has put Greek officials on tenterhooks and once again raised questions over whether any holiday is safe.
“Tourism is a danger, there is no safe tourism,” said leading infectious disease expert Nikos Sypsas who advises the government.
“But there is a plan under which imported cases are quickly located, quickly isolated and their contacts traced.”
Greece, which had previously managed to keep the killer bug under control, has been reversing lockdown measures since early May.
The dramatic rise in cases follows hedonistic scenes as Greeks, enjoying the long weekend, flocked to party islands like Mykonos where hundreds were caught on camera cramming into a beach bar.
The bar was heavily fined and closed for the next two months.
In a sign of just how worried they are, panic-stricken officials are not ruling out imposing local lockdowns, including shutting down entire islands when outbreaks occur.
“All these [new] cases remind us of one thing, that the epidemic is here, it is not fake news and it can, any moment, return,” said Professor Sypsas, blaming the public’s decision to turn its back on advice given by scientists and government officials for the uptick.
“When we see group gatherings as we saw in Mykonos, and other islands, the rise in temperatures is not going to help stop the virus,” said professor Sypsas.
“This virus is with us, it is still here and it does not excuse any mistake.”
On Tuesday, the Greek government announced it will be bringing back
daily health briefings to warn Greeks of the dangers that still lurk.
With strict quarantines in both Greece and the UK, however, a holiday may be off the cards.
Greek Tourism Minister Harry Theoharis told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Testing is mandatory and for a certain amount of days you wait for the test results.
“It does mean that there is an inconvenience in the first few days. That’s why this is not going to be for the masses. It has to mean you have more time.”
