New measures for Attica may be announced later on Tuesday, says health minister
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday called for an emergency meeting of the committee of health experts that is advising the government on its management of the coronavirus pandemic, seeking to address calls for a hard lockdown on Greek capital.
Leaving a meeting of key officials at the prime minister’s office in Maximos Mansion, Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias said that announcements are expected to be made by the end of the day on whether additional restrictions will be imposed on the broader Attica region to stem the spread of the virus.
In a related development, meanwhile, Greek media were quoting sources from the National Organization for Public Health (EODY), which delivers the country’s daily bulletin on the course of the virus, suggesting that new cases had come to more than 1,000 by noon on Tuesday and were expected to surpass 1,500 by the early evening briefing.
Earlier in the day, Kikilias had said in a television interview that he was in favor of a near-total lockdown on the Greek capital in the wake of reports from experts indicating widespread community transmission and concerns about the rising appearance of two new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that are said to be much more contagious that the prevalent strain we have been dealing with so far.
