Authorization hotline inundated by requests over weekend
The 13033 hotline granting individuals permission to leave their homes was inundated with more than 8.6 million requests in the first two days of the new lockdown, Digital Governance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis said on Tuesday.
Speaking to Skai television, Pierrakakis said the system processed around 4.7 million requests on Saturday and 3.9 million on Sunday, which was a “slightly higher” than in the same phase of the first lockdown.
During the spring lockdown, the hotline processed 110 million requests in the first 42 days of operation, an average of around 2.6 million messages a day. He said that an increase by about a million a day is expected in the second lockdown, as a result of elementary schools being open and parents seeking permission to shuttle their children back and forth.
“The system is responding satisfactorily, with just a few minor glitches at the start,” the minister said.
In related comments, the deputy minister for digital governance, Grigoris Zafiropoulos, clarified that there is no limit to the number of SMSs an individual user can send on a given day built into the system.
“There is not cut-off point,” he told state broadcaster ERT, responding to reports that the hotline places a cap on the number of requests citizens are allowed to make.
“The messages are not stored. That was never the intention of 13033,” Zafiropoulos said.
However, citizens are advised that suspected abuses of the authorization system may be investigated by police carrying out inspections for lockdown violations.
