Public health chief warns against complacency

The coronavirus pandemic is not over and people should not be letting down their guard, the president of the National Organization for Public Health (EODY) warned on Tuesday.

“So far, in the first phase, the results have been good and we are satisfied… The results from the easing of measures that started yesterday will become apparent in a week or 10 days, so everyone needs to remain vigilant, to avoid crowding and to implement hygiene measures,” Panagiotis Arkoumaneas said in comments to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA) during a visit to an emergency homeless shelter in Thessaloniki.

Arkoumaneas was in the northern port city to oversee the launch of EODY’s mobile Covid-19 testing program, which will carry out tests on vulnerable individuals and on workers at public services and care homes over the next few months.

EODY’s mobile units on Tuesday tested some 80 people at the homeless shelter that was set up after the coronavirus outbreak on the grounds of the Thessaloniki International Exhibition Center. They are expected to carry out an additional 250 tests on Wednesday on workers in the local Municipal Police force, the city’s Citizens’ Service Centers (KEP) and at the Organization Against Drugs (OKANA). They will also be carrying out tests on people sleeping rough on the city’s streets.

EODY has dispatched some 25 mobile units in Athens, Thessaloniki and other parts of the country to conduct widespread testing, particularly on vulnerable members of the population and on workers who come into contact with them.