Greece coronavirus update: bar and restaurant curfews introduced in tourist hotspots
11 August 2020, 15:17 | Updated: 11 August 2020, 15:57
Greece is reportedly heading for a second wave of coronavirus - here's your need-to-know on the situation in the country.
The Greek government has introduced a curfew on bars and restaurants in some tourist hotspots following a spike of coronavirus cases in the country.
Establishments in places like Corfu, Mykonons, Rhodes and Crete will be forced to shut between midnight at 7am, a government spokesperson announced on Monday (10 August).
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The curfew - which will be in place from Tuesday 11 August until Sunday 23 August - also applies to Thessaloniki, Zakynthos Halkidiki, Larissa, Santorini, and Kos.
Greece's Health minister Vassilis Kikilias said that the infection curve was 'rising dangerously' on the islands, with 203 new infections being recorded on Sunday.
Greece is currently on the 'quarantine-free' travel list in the UK, meaning Brits don't have to isolate for 14 days when returning from the country.
However, countries like Spain have been removed from the list on short notice - and the government have warned that this could happen elsewhere at any time.
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Speaking to Sky News soon after Spain was removed last month, Foreigns Secretary Dominic Raab said: "I’m not going to tell people what they should and shouldn’t do; they should follow the advice", but he added that he would be 'staying home' this summer.
Mr Raab continued: "As we’ve found with Spain, we can’t give a guarantee.
‘All we can say is we’ve got this Joint Biosecurity Centre, we monitor the risk in real time, we take decisive swift action and so there is an element of uncertainty this summer if people go abroad."
He added: "The reason this was taken at reasonably short-notice was the spike in Spain that we’ve responded to … so it was the real-time response, the data we were getting from Spain (meant) we had to respond very swiftly.
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"The cases in Spain, the data came we got was on the Friday, showed a big jump right across mainland Spain, that was then assessed yesterday afternoon and we took the decision as swiftly as we could.
"And we can’t make apologies for doing so.
"We must be able to take swift, decisive action, particularly in relation to localised, or internationally in relation to Spain or a particular country, where we see we must take action.
"Otherwise, we risk re-infection into the UK, potentially a second wave here and then another lockdown."
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