Official urges caution on Kos island as cases rise
Residents and visitors on Kos are urged to keep themselves and others around them safe after the popular eastern Aegean holiday island climbed from yellow to orange on Greece coronavirus alert map, Deputy Minister for Civil Protection said on Friday.
The agency, he said, “is doing everything it can to contain small outbreaks,” but residents must do their part, Hardalias told the government’s daily briefing on the course of the pandemic.
On the upside, a total of 24 of the 78 areas on the interactive map – which grades them on a color scale according to case numbers in relation to their population, with red indicating the highest level – have shown signs of improvement.
Sixteen of them – northern Athens, Viotia, Thessaloniki, Ioannina, Grevena, Achaia, Rethymno, Tinos, Evia, Aitoloakarnania, Lesvos, Kilkis, Iraklio in Crete, Syros, Andros and Kalymnos – dropped to yellow from orange.
The areas that improved from orange to green – the best level – are Preveza, Samos, Lefkada, Kefalonia, Evrytania, Thasos, Limnos and Milos.
In terms of numbers, Attica – which is also Greece’s most populated region – accounted for more than half of Friday’s new confirmed infections, with 400 of the 791 reported cases. The problem is most acute in the city center, which had 108 of those 400 cases. The northern port city of Thessaloniki had 84 of Friday’s new cases.
