More than 830 fines of 300 euros issued since stricter penalties enforced

The Hellenic Police (ELAS) issued 106 fines of 300 euros each on Easter Sunday against citizens violating restrictions on movement outside their declared area of residence, in a bid to clamp down on the spread of the coronavirus, particularly to rural parts that are ill-equipped to deal with an outbreak of the disease.

According to figures quoted by the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA) on Monday, of these 106 violations, 54 were recorded in the region of Attica, 19 in Thessaloniki and 13 on Crete, with single-digit violations in other parts of the country.

Since the stricter 300-euro penalty was implemented ahead of Easter amid fears that Greeks would violate restrictions en masse to spend the holiday in their ancestral villages, authorities have issued a total of 835 fines. They have also confiscated the license plates from 515 vehicles for a period of 60 days.

An additional 279 fines of 150 euros were issued on Easter Sunday for unauthorized movement within citizens’ residential districts. Attica, Thessaloniki and Crete had the most violations, with 115, 37 and 27 respectively.

Since the beginning of the measure on March 23, authorities have issued a total of 46,420 fines for lockdown violations.