Athens nursing home on lockdown after Covid-19 outbreak

Health and civil protection authorities have put a nursing home in the downtown Athens district of Agios Panteleimonas on strict lockdown following an outbreak of coronavirus infections in the facility.

Under the new rules, no one will be allowed in or out of the facility except staff, with the ban even applying to suppliers, until October 9.

In the meantime, health authorities started transferring the nursing home’s patients to hospitals in the Greek capital that are equipped to deal with coronavirus cases on Thursday morning.

At least 40 people – staff and patients – in the facility have tested positive for the virus so far, the head of the National Organization for Public Health (EODY), Panagiotis Arkoumaneas, told Skai TV.

Visiting the facility on Wednesday evening after the outbreak was reported, the head of the government’s committee of experts on the coronavirus crisis, epidemiology professor Sotiris Tsiodras, sounded the alarm about the rising number of new infections being reported in the Greek capital.

“Things are not going well in Athens,” Tsiodras said, hours after EODY reported 354 new cases, of which 195 were in the Attica region.