Greece sees another surge in COVID cases

By Magda Panoutsopoulou

ATHENS (AA) - Greece registered a new all-time record for daily COVID-19 cases Wednesday, with health authorities reporting 28,828 infections in the past 24 hours.

The latest figure is up from 21,657 on Tuesday and 9,284 on Monday, said the National Organization for Public Health (EODY) .

The government has decided to bring forward new measures that were scheduled to come into effect on Jan. 3. to Thursday, said Health Minister Thanos Plevris.

They include requiring high protection masks on public transport, at supermarkets and in all areas where crowds are gathered as well as at food venues; a limit of six people at tables in restaurants and a midnight curfew for restaurants and entertainment venues; as well as limitations at sports venues and changes in the workplace.

In both the public and private sector, half of the staff will have to work from home, while shifts will be introduced.

Opposition leaders criticized the government's decision to bring forward the new measures.

“(Prime Minister Kyriakos) Mitsotakis knew what was coming. He pretended to take measures without any substance and with only the criterion of his political cost,” said the main opposition party Syriza.

The measures to be instituted on Thursday "should have been introduced when the first samples of the super-spreading omicron variant appeared in other European countries, whose governments exhibited greater decisiveness and effectiveness than the Greek one," the Movement for Change (KINAL) party said in a statement.

Dimitris Koutsoumbas, general secretary of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), blamed the government for being backward and accused it of not supporting the public health system.

Regarding the state of the national health system, Plevris said it continues to be under pressure from the delta variant, but the government has agreed with private structures to offer beds and staff.

Since the pandemic began, Greece has confirmed 1,134,713 cases. ​​​​​​​

Another 72 people died from COVID-19, taking the country’s death toll to 20,636.