Greece may shut down tolls to curb Easter exodus

Greece may shut down tolls to prevent city dwellers from traveling to their villages for Easter as the country fights to stem the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, government spokesman Stelios Petsas has said.

“We’ll see if we need to shut down the tolls… For the time being, we are reiterating the key prohibitions,” Petsas told Skai radio on Friday.

The Easter holiday is seen as a pivotal factor that may merit an extension of the lockdown as it is a time of excursions and large gatherings.

Petsas warned earlier this week that Greeks should be aware that they won’t be celebrating Easter the way they are used to this year.

“We will not have Easter in the village, we will not cook in our yards and we will not visit our churches,” he said on Monday.

Meanwhile, the government on Thursday imposed a ban on swimming in the sea, speargun fishing and watersports.

Authorities on Thursday announced 99 new cases of coronavirus with the death toll rising to 53.