Greece Social Briefing: Fighting the Pandemic George N

Home , Corfu (regional unit), Grevena (regional unit), Imathia, Kalymnos, Kasos, Kastoria (regional unit)

ISSN: 2560-1601

Vol. 33, No. 3 (GR)

October 2020

Greece social briefing: Fighting the Pandemic George N. Tzogopoulos

1052 Budapest Petőfi Sándor utca 11.

+36 1 5858 690 Kiadó: Kína-KKE Intézet Nonprofit Kft. [email protected] Szerkesztésért felelős személy: Chen Xin

Kiadásért felelős személy: Huang Ping china-cee.eu 2017/01

Fighting the Pandemic

The last days of October 2020 saw a spike in COVID-19 cases in Greece. In the end of the month Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced a partial lockdown for the country which was followed by the decision to impose a full lockdown in Thessaloniki and Serres. Although Greece successfully managed the first wave of the pandemic in March and April, it now needs to efficiently respond to the second one. The rise in the number of cases has been the result of both government relaxation and individual irresponsibility. The new mission of the Greek government is far from easy. Although most Greeks understand the unprecedented challenges, the achievement of a balance between public health and economic recovery appears delicate.

On 31 October 2020 Greece announced the highest number of COVID-19 cases since the outbreak of the pandemic: 2056. The total amount of cases amounted to 39251 by the end of the month. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis intended to impose new measures the day before, on 30 October, when 1690 new cases were reported. However, an earthquake that hit Samos and Izmir on that day postponed his statement. The 6.7 magnitude tremor killed two people in Samos and many more in Izmir while it found at least 300 buildings on the Aegean island unsafe. Mitsotakis travelled to Samos in order to evaluate damages and also met with the parents of the two teenagers who died when a wall collapsed.

On 31 October, the Greek Prime Minister gave his speech and divided the country in two zones, the yellow one (monitoring situation) and the red one (high risk). The yellow zone includes Aitoloakarnania, Andros, Argolida, Arkadia, Arta, Achaia, Attika islands, Corinthia, Chania, Cephalonia, Chios, Corfu, Evia, Evritania, Fthiotida, Florina, Fokida, Grevena, Herakleion, Ikaria, Ileia, Ithaca, Kalymnos, Karditsa, Karpathos-Kasos, Kos, Lakonia, Lasithi, Lefkada, Lesvos, Limnos, Magnisia, Messinia, Milos, Mykonos, Paros, Preveza, Rethymno, Rhodes, Samos, Sporades islands, Syros, Tinos, Thasos, Thesprotia, and Zakynthos. The red zone encompasses: Chalkidiki, Central Athens, Eastern Attika, Evros, Imathia, Ioannina, Kavala, Kastoria, Kilkis, Kozani, Larisa, Naxos, Northern Athens, Pieria, Piraeus, Pella, Rodopi, Serres, Southern Athens, Thessaloniki, Thira, Trikala, Viotia and Western Athens and Xanthi.

New measures applied for the whole country, including in yellow zones, are the mandatory use of masks in all indoor and outdoor public spaces, the curfew from 12 midnight to 5 am, the obligatory teleworking for half of employees in the private and public sectors, the replacement of face-to-face education with online one and the banning of all public gatherings. In red zones, however, more restrictions do apply. These are the suspension of the operation of restaurants, cafes and bars – with the exception of delivery and take away services – as well as of museums, theatres and indoor gyms. As opposed to the March and April lockdown period, schools, retail shops, hotels, outdoor archaeological sites and hair salons will remain open. Additionally, travelling from county to county within Greece is allowed.

The fight against the pandemic is hard and it is not only linked to governmental measures but also to individual responsibility. On 30 October 2020, for example, the Hellenic Police announced that it had carried out 44279 checks the day before registering 1357 violations of rules. Several citizens were not wearing their masks while others were violating the public curfew. Α Pulse poll organized in the end of October shows that younger people are less concerned about the novel coronavirus in comparison to older ones. Specifically, the degree of concerns varies from 60 and 59 percent (respondents from 17 to 29 years old and from 30 to 44 years old) to 76 and 83 percent (respondents from 45 to 59 years old and over 60 years old). Αnother survey conducted by Marc company exhibits that 18,7 percent of respondents did not consider COVID-19 more serious in comparison to a normal flu. And a YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project poll, which was designed in collaboration with The Guardian and presented in the British newspaper on 26 October, outlines that 46 percent of respondents in Greece thought that the death rate of the disease had been deliberately and greatly exaggerated. The number was higher only in Nigeria (59 percent).

No doubt, Greek citizens bear responsibility for the spike in COVID-19 cases in October. However, the government itself has arguably lost control of the situation, especially in the last ten days of the month. 411 COVID-19 cases were reported on 1 October and the daily number of cases remained below 500 until 17 October (503). It then continuously rose before exceeding 2000 by the end of the month. Mitsotakis tends to say that Greece has coped with the problem better than other countries in Western and Eastern Europe by looking at the number of fatalities. Greece is placed it in the 102nd place in the world (55.7 deaths per 1 million people) and in the 22nd position among the 27 EU member-states. Also, according to the Greek observatory on COVID-19, the daily average in the number of tests in the week from 22 until 28 October amounted to 18534.

Table: COVID-19 cases reported in Greece in October 2020-indicative days (Source: Greek Public Health Organization)

1/10 10/20 20/10 25/10 26/10 27/10 28/10 29/10 30/10 31/10 411 307 667 935 715 1259 1547 1211 1690 2056

A serious problem that Greece is encountered with is the rising number of occupied beds in intensive care units. Data from the afore-mentioned observatory show that an increase of 46 percent in be occupancy was monitored in the end of the month. This increase was higher in Athens (58 percent). The number of patients in need for treatment in intensive care units rose from 86 to 108. This is the highest number since the outbreak of the pandemic. Disease expert Professor Sotiris Tsiodras warned on 30 October that it was a ‘mathematical certainty’ that the public health system would come under significant pressure. Only two days after Greek Prime Minister announced new measures in response to the pandemic, the government went further. It decided to impose a two-week full lockdown in Thessaloniki and Serres, although schools would remain open. Subsequently, Aegean Airlines suspended domestic and international flights to and from ‘Makedonia’ airport, from 3 until 17 November. Last but not least, government spokesman Stelios Petsas did not exclude the possibility of extending the full lockdown to cover the whole country.

A survey conducted by Opinion Poll company in October shows that 51 percent of respondents were highly or modestly optimistic about the management of the pandemic in Greece. 48 percent replied they were highly or modestly pessimistic. Moreover, in the opinion of 65 percent the performance of the government was satisfactory whereas 32 percent was dissatisfied. Eurobarometer also offers useful data about the stance of public opinion in Greece in comparison to that of other countries of the EU. The most recent survey (September-October 2020) shows that 79 percent of Greeks agreed that the EU should have a bigger budget to overcome the consequences of the pandemic. This was the second higher percentage in the EU followed by that of Cyprus (81 percent). While the EU average in this question was 55 percent, it is clear that Greek citizens joined voices with the ones in other Southern countries, which also included Spain and Malta (69 percent), Portugal (67 percent) and Italy (64 percent). Furthermore, 55 percent of respondents in Greece believed that the current crisis had impacted on their personal income. Even her, this was the highest percentage followed by that of Cyprus (57 percent). The Greek percentage was equal with that of Spain.

Conclusion

The Greek government faces the second and more serious wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The last days of October 2020 demonstrated that the period of relaxation had been over. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis talked to Greek citizens in the end of October and announced new measures including a partial lockdown. Greek citizens are not particularly satisfied with the performance of the government but have not withdrawn their trust. A comparison of the two main parties, the governing New Democracy and the main opposition SYRIZA, in public perception favors the former. Numerous Greek citizens believe that a SYRIZA administration would not have necessarily performed better. Furthermore, there is a level of understanding that the current mission of the government has been particularly tough. Most Greeks value public health but acknowledge that lockdown measures might damage the national economy.