Fresh fears in Kozani after clerics test positive for Covid

The National Organization for Public Health (EODY) has dispatched a mobile testing unit to Kozani in northern Greece following a fresh coronavirus outbreak in what is one of the hardest-hit parts of the country.

EODY’s unit will be conducting hundreds of rapid tests on residents in the broader vicinity of Ardassa and Emborio after several clerics came down with Covid-19 in the wake of a ceremony that was attended by hundreds of locals.

Reports in local media on Monday said that five priests tested positive soon after attending the ordainment of a deacon at the Monastery of Agios Kosmas of Aitolia in in the village of Ardassa.

They added that the event was attended by hundreds of clerics and locals, very few of whom were wearing masks or practicing physical distancing, sparking fears that the ordainment may turn into a super-spreader event.

Kozani was one of the first parts of the country to go into lockdown this autumn and has consistently struggled to contain transmission of the novel coronavirus since the start of the pandemic last spring.