First coronavirus infection reported at island camp
The Vial migrant reception center on Chios has been put under full lockdown until August 25 after a 35-year-old man from Yemen and a female employee of the facility tested positive for the coronavirus.
The decision to lock down the facility was taken jointly by the Migration and the Citizens’ Protection ministries in coordination with the National Organization of Public Health (EODY).
A delegation of EODY officials were at the camp on Thursday conducting inspections on other residents and people who have been in contact with the employee.
The 35-year-old, who arrived on Chios from Turkey last September, tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday night. He was hospitalized with mild symptoms of the virus while more than 20 camp residents have been quarantined in a separate facility. The employee tested positive on Thursday.
The Chios infection is not the first at a migrant camp – dozens of cases were reported at the peak of the lockdown at three facilities on the mainland. But it is the first case at an island camp where overcrowding is more of a problem. In the Vial facility, 3,800 people live in a space intended to hold less than a third of that number.
