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Greece Updates Data on Covid-19 Cases from Inbound Travel
Posted On 09 Sep 2020
The Greek General Secretariat for Civil Protection on Tuesday held a media briefing and released data showing that most of Greece’s imported coronavirus (Covid-19) cases are from five countries.
It is noted that, the majority of Greece’s positive cases are not from inbound travel but have resulted from people not complying with health and safety regulations.
Most imported cases from five countries
According to the data, during the July 1-September 6 period, the largest number of positive coronavirus infections were in found in travelers entering Greece from Albania (132), Bulgaria (102), Romania (89), Serbia (80) and France (54).
During the period under examination, 972 Covid-19 cases were confirmed from 451,908 tests performed out of a total of 3,553,035 incoming travelers in Greece.
More specifically, the data showed that in the July 1-September 6 period:
– 2,957,103 arrived to Greece by air, 334,549 tests were conducted and 641 were positive.
– 163,900 people traveled on a ferry, 21,116 tests were conducted and 28 were positive.
– 432,032 arrived by road, 96,243 tests were conducted and 303 were positive.
Infectious diseases expert Gkikas Magiorkinis, Deputy Health Minister Zoe Rapti and Civil Protection Deputy Minister Nikos Hardalias.
During the briefing, Greek Civil Protection Deputy Minister Nikos Hardalias underlined that all tests are targeted.
“Targeting tests allow us to either open or close (to a country)… When an area from which we expect tourism, epidemiologically seems to have problems, we do not hesitate to take actions that work more safely for us,” he said.
“We are proceeding step by step with very targeted actions, daily effort and daily monitoring of internal data,” Hardalias said, adding that experts are constantly monitoring all the countries that Greece is interested in, either as tourism origins, or as areas through which citizens enter the country, especially from its land borders.
“The checks we do, including those at our land borders, ports and airports, are very specific and done under a certain strategy,” the deputy minister said, explaining that the number of tests conducted at the border points depends on the epidemiological state of countries.
“Where there seems to be an epidemiological outbreak, we increase the tests,” he said.
Hardalias noted that when a country is doing better from an epidemiological point, the number of tests to travelers from that country are reduced.
“Our effort is based on specific models and algorithms and is part of an overall strategy that concerns the opening of tourism,” Hardalias said.
Greek health authorities on Tuesday announced 169 new coronavirus cases (16 cases from travelers abroad), raising the total number to 11,832. The death toll in the country has reached 290.
Do you know when by chance they will let russian travelers in greece
thank you
When we arrived in Kalamata from the U.K. one person in every group was tested (chosen from the QR code on the plf) which I felt was a really sensible and efficient approach. Those tested were asked to quarantine for 24hrs so that any Covid positive travellers could be identifiedand traced. When returning to the U.K. nothing! Nobody even asked for the plf!
You shouldn’t do random tests at the airport. People with greek I.D’s should be checked also
What is the percentage of passengers tested by country when entering Greece? I have friends who flew by Transavia and everyone was tested on entering Crete (Heraklion). Another friend arrived from the U.K. but tests were random.