Prosecutor orders probe into claims of inaccurate Covid-19 reporting

The head of the Athens Prosecutor's Office, Sotiria Papageorgakopoulou, ordered on Monday a preliminary investigation into media reports claiming that there are mistakes in the way the National Health Organisation (EODY) published and kept data on the coronavirus.

According to reports published in the newspapers To Vima and Demokratia on Sunday, EODY has been providing the government and its committee of experts with incomplete data on the pandemic and keeping two parallel lists of new infections which led in inaccurate reporting on the virus. This, in turn, meant that officials were presented with an inaccurate picture of the pandemic, the reports said.

The inquiry has been assigned to the head of Criminal Prosecution, Nikos Ornerakis, who will investigate these claims.

Speaking at the daily briefing on the developments with the pandemic, the head of EODY Panagiotis Arkoumaneas dismissed the reports as “unacceptable and malicious,” arguing that “there is only one registration system for Covid-19 patients.”

Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias said the reports were “completely unjust and unfounded,” and rejected the claims that relations between Civil Protection and EODY are strained.