Crackdown on ban violators continues as millions send SMS requests
As Greece entered the fourth day of a full lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19 on Thursday, the Hellenic Police (ELAS) said that officers recorded 1,155 violations of a ban on unnecessary movement on March 25 and arrested six people for opening their businesses in contravention of government restrictions introduced to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Of the violations, the majority (333) were in Attica. Other areas where large numbers of violations were recorded were Thessaloniki (124), the Ionian Islands (106), Crete (97) and the Peloponnese (76).
In all cases, officers imposed a fine of 150 euros on offenders.
Of the arrests, two were in the South Aegean, one in Attica, one in Central Macedonia, one in Epirus and one in the Ionian.
Meanwhile, the Digital Governance Ministry revealed that citizens sent a total of 4.4 million text messages to secure approval to leave their homes in the first three days of the lockdown.
Apart from sending a text message to the number 13033, citing a reason for leaving the house, the other two options are to fill in a special form on the website forma.gov.gr or to write one’s reason on a piece of paper and sign it.
