Expert warns against crowding, says virus can spread like ‘wildfire’

An expert in infectious diseases on Tuesday expressed concern over what he described as an “overly relaxed” attitude towards the coronavirus pandemic in recent weeks in Greece, warning that the situation could deteriorate fast.

“The virus is still here, unfortunately, and can make a sudden resurgence,” Nikolaos Sipsas, a professor at Athens University, told Skai television on Tuesday morning.

While Greece has managed to keep the number of coronavirus infections at a manageable level since the outbreak of the disease in the country in late February and has one of lowest contagion indexes in Europe, this does no mean that the country is “finished” with the virus, Sipsas said, warning against complacency.

He was referring to incidents of weekend crowding at public squares and popular nightlife spots in the past few weeks, saying that the impact of this kind of behavior will start becoming apparent in the coming weeks.

“I hope it won’t be bad,” Sipsas said, pointing to the case of Germany, which has seen as many as 150 new infections a day in parts of the country following the relaxation of lockdown measures.

“If the virus finds itself in a contained area, in a crowd for example, it can spread like wildfire, meaning that a single carrier will infect not just two or three people, but 10 or even 100 and they will go on to infect another 100,” Sipsas said, stressing the importance of social distancing rules.