Nikos Hardalias

Deputy Minister for Civil Protection Nikos Hardalias and the government's special adviser on the coronavirus crisis, Sotiris Tsiodras, were traveling to the northern Greek region of Xanthi on Friday with a team from the National Organization for Public Health (EODY) following an outbreak of Covid-19 cases.

As the number of infections from the novel coronavirus showed a sudden increase in the past few days in Greece, health authorities are resuming their daily public briefings in a bid to alert Greeks to the risks of relaxing safety measures.

Nikos Hardalias, the Deputy Minister in charge of Civil Protection and Crisis Management, has travelled to Thessaloniki to oversee preparations for the reopening of the city's Makedonia Airport.

Greek health authorities will run hundreds of molecular tests on residents of the wider area of the regional unit of Xanthi, northeastern Greece, starting on Thursday, as part of a targeted plan to eliminate "continuing infections in the last few days," General Secretariat for Civil Protection announced on Thursday.

In an emotional farewell speech on Tuesday, Greek infectious disease professor and Health Ministry spokesman Sotiris Tsiodras announced that the televised live briefings on the developments with the novel coronavirus in the country will wind down at the end of the week and be replaced by weekly statements.

Greece's deputy minister for Civil Protection, Nikos Hardalias, sought to address concerns over the government's plans to reopen tourism to visitors from abroad as of July 1, without subjecting them to coronavirus tests and a mandatory quarantine period.

Greek health authorities announced on Tuesday four new cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the total nationwide to 2,840.

No fatalities were reported in the past 24 hours, Health Ministry representative Sotiris Tsiodras said in his daily press briefing, keeping the death toll at 165. The median age of the victims was 75.

Bishop Anthimos of Alexandroupoli has acknowledged that the strict lockdown measures imposed by the government to contain the spread of the coronavirus "protected" churchgoers.

Greek authorities on Friday announced they were extending a ban on passenger flights to and from Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands until May 31.

Are the crowds of young people who have been congregating recently in public squares in Athens and other parts of the country politically guided acts of the usual kind or spontaneous gatherings? Even if they did start as a reaction by young people to being cooped up at home for seven weeks, these party-like gatherings soon became political.