Athens: Tourism cannot be blamed for a surge in Covid-19 infection in Greece, the Minister of Tourism said on Wednesday after the government introduced restrictions that aimed to save summer.
Greece, which depend on tourism for a fifth of its economy, began in May, hoping that income would reach around half of the recording he saw in 2019 when more than 30 million people visited the country.
“The opening of tourism was carried out very carefully, in the first 10 days of July only 74 out of 105,609 samples taken at the country’s entry point was positive, only 0.07%,” said Haris Theoharis to the Greek room hotel.
“Our country does not have a problem with the opening of its borders,” he said.
“The increase in infection is not related to tourism.” The government bet on at least a resurrection of part of the tourism sector this summer, but is worried about the spread of a very contagious Delta variant.
About 41% of Greeks were fully vaccinated so far.
Tourists need to show that they have been vaccinated or present a negative PCR test to enter the country.
Greece reported 3,109 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, the last level was seen in early April, bringing total infection since the first case was detected in February last year to 444,783.
Death related to Covid-19 has reached 12,806.
The country will ask customers at the Indoor, Bar and Cafe restaurants to prove that they have been vaccinated against Covid-19, the government said on Tuesday, to combat the surge in infection.
“We cannot allow the Deniers of Science to lead our country to be an adventure,” Theoharis said referring to people who still refused to vaccinate.