Greece will impose a night curfew in areas most affected by Covid-19, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Thursday, announcing restrictions on movement in several areas of the country including Athens.
Mitsotakis said movement would be banned from 12.30 a.m. to 5 a.m. in locations deemed high-risk and where elevated surveillance was necessary, based on a four-tier risk assessment by authorities. The measure would be in force from Saturday.
Two regions in northern Greece, Kozani and Kastoria, are at the highest risk and regional lockdowns have already been announced, followed by other provinces of elevated surveillance in northern Greece and the region of Attica, where Athens is located.
Greece has recorded significantly lower numbers of Covid-19 than other countries in Europe, though cases started to rise in early October. Testing has also increased.
“The objective is to restrict movement and night-time gatherings which are conducive to the spread of the virus. Perhaps it’s less fun for a while, but it would mean more health in the longer term,” Mitsotakis said.
Young people had a responsibility to help curb the spread, Mitsotakis said, adding that the state would be relentless in prosecuting businesses breaking the rules. “Now is not the time for secret parties, when this virus is having a party at the expense of our lives.”
“The data is clear, the spread of the virus is particularly among young people, and at the times and locations where they gather. But from there on it spreads into family units, affecting older people disproportionately.”
Fifteen more deaths were registered on Thursday, authorities said, bringing the total to 549, many of them elderly. More than 90% of those who died had underlying health issues. Earlier, authorities announced 882 new cases of coronavirus.
The quarantine imposed on the VIAL reception and identification centre on the island of Chios has been extended to November 4, 2020, according to a joint decision of the health, citizen protection and migration ministries on Thursday.
A no-confidence vote tabled by SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras against Finance Minister Christos Staikouras on Thursday suspended debate in parliament on the draft bankruptcy law.
The main opposition leader tabled the motion during a debate in parliament’s plenary on a bill containing a new bankruptcy code for both businesses and private individuals, including regulations on home owners who have defaulted on their debts. Discussion on the motion will begin at 18:00 on Friday, while that on the bill will resume once the no-confidence vote is complete (the latest by Sunday).
The leaders of the criminal organization Go
lden Dawn arrived at the Attica police headquarters (GADA) in Athens on Thursday on their way to jail.
All leading members of the far-right Golden Dawn, a former parliamentary party, except second-in-command Christos Pappas and Eurodeputy Yiannis Lagos, arrived at GADA late on Thursday, after the criminal appeals court ruled they should be jailed immediately.
To Thursday evening, most of the leadership of Golden Dawn except the two mentioned above turned themselves in to police voluntarily. In total, 22 people were held at the police HQ’s seventh floor, pending their transfers to jails, while another 10 were arrested at the appeals court immediately after the decision for immediate imprisonment.
A total of 50 people were sentenced in the trial of Golden Dawn, while the court on Thursday denied suspended sentences to 39 of them.
Golden Dawn leader Nikos Michaloliakos and leadership group members Ilias Kasidiaris, Lagos, Giorgos Germenis, Ilias Panagiotaros and Pappas were served 13-year sentences each.
And the weather forecast…
Sunny in Attica today with the temperature expected to reach a maximum of 26 degrees Celsius.
