The Greek government is considering more measures to restrict further the activities of unvaccinated citizens and among them is blocking their access to the food services at restaurants or demand negative Rapid test for entrance at the supermarkets.
Speaking to OPEN TV on Friday morning, Development Minister Adonis Georgiadis confirmed that th issue of asking ngative Rapid tests for entrance at supermarkets has been examined at the Prime Minister’s office, however, there are problems with the implementation of such a measure.
“Of course, [the issue] is being examined, but there are problems. We also discussed it at the meeting at the Prime Minister’s office. There are some of our fellow citizens who will not even do a rapid test and we can not deprive them of access to basic goods,” Minister Georgiadis.
He added that there will be a problem with endless queues at peak hours in large stores.
According to media information, however, the measure that could be considered for supermarkets is the change in “density”, ie less customers entering the space at the same time.
Note that the number of customers present in supermarkets at the same time was restricted since the start of the pandemic but the restriction was lifted beginning of October.
Speaking to another TV station, Skai, Georgiadis left open the possibility of ban unvaccinated citizens from restaurants or to undergo a Rapid test on daily basis, saying “all options are open, they could be possibly implmented if the [pandemic] situation gets much worse.”
He categorically ruled out the possibility of a general lockdown arguing that “the government is considering measures that will not effect the lives of vaccinated citizens who are at risk to get infected or ill but they’re not at risk of dying” as he said.
Greece has been experiencing a fourth wave of the pandemic with the current number of active coronavirus cases at 47,000 as health experts announced on Thursday and the number of intubated Covid-patients to have exceeded 500..
In an effort to meet understaffed hospitals, the government has called on private doctors to register duty at public hospitals. It has given them a deadline until the weekend or “they will be requisitioned,” as gov’t spokesman Giannis Oikonomou said on Friday.