Greece ‘best performing’ country in Europe in containing virus

Greece has performed better than any other country in Europe in its response to the coronavirus pandemic by taking early containment measures, a report published on Thursday by French think-tank The Bridge has found.

The organization, which is a member of the G20’s international think-tank network T20, compared the response of 10 European countries to the outbreak and their ability to contain the spread of the disease.

In an analysis of the measures adopted by each country in relation to the virus’ first appearance and the first 100 confirmed infections, The Bridge found that “thanks to early and strict containment measures,” Greece, followed by the Czech Republic and Romania, “have successfully managed to flatten the curve and slow down the spread of the virus.”

It said that as a result of delays in “implementing proper lockdown and social distancing measures,” Italy, Spain, France, the UK, The Netherlands and Belgium are the “most severely hit by the outbreak and have struggled to flatten the curve efficiently.”

“The contrast between Greece – which suspended public events and closed schools even before the first 100 cases were detected – and Spain – which took similar decisions at a much later stage of the epidemic – is particularly striking,” the report notes.