Greece Receives Covid Management Award From World Tourism Body

Greece has been honored with the “Global Champion Award for COVID-19 Crisis Management” by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) while the country moves toward lifting more restrictions beginning on May 3.

The award, which commends Greece as a global example for the safe opening of the tourism sector during the pandemic, was received by the Minister of Tourism Haris Theoharis at a special event during the WTTC’s annual conference, held this year in Cancun, Mexico.

“The ‘Global Champion Award for COVID-19 Crisis Management’ is awarded to the entire Greek tourism industry. The WTCC recognizes the immense effort to which the employees, entrepreneurs and all those involved in the provision of tourism services have contributed, in an unprecedented success for Greece”, Theoharis said in his speech.

The Tourism Minister pointed out that the award seals the fact that it is no accident that the brand name “Greece” has emerged as a synonym for safe and carefree holidays.

“We have managed to keep alive the hope for millions of people around the world, proving in practice that health safety can be achieved. And safety can, in turn, make travel possible, even in a state of siege from the pandemic,” he declared at the awards.

Travel between regions allowed, sms measures remain in place

After six full months of a travel ban between regions in Greece, the restriction aimed at preventing the interregional spread of Covid-19 will be finally lifted on May 3, Easter Monday.

While the hospitality sector is also scheduled to open on the same date, the nightly curfew, although slightly extended until 11:00 PM, will remain in place — and so will the SMS for citizens’ travel outside their homes.

The latter will nonetheless be done away with  once the country opens for tourism in mid-May.

In the meantime, restaurant workers will be exempt from the 11:00 curfew to allow them enough time to return home.

Covid vaccination opens to all those from 30-49 in Greece

In another development, the vaccination platform opened on Holy Tuesday for yet another age group, those who are from 30-39. The first 60,000 appointments have already been confirmed, as Digital Governance Minister, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, stated to ANT1 TV.

“The platform opened late Monday for those in the e-prescription system, while on Holy Thursday it will be the turn of citizens aged 40-44 and on Holy Saturday for those aged 45-49,” Pierrakakis said.

Recently, the government also offered the flexibility to citizens to get their second shot of the vaccine in a different city in Greece, as an effort to speed up the ongoing national inoculation process against Covid-19.

Greece recorded 1,317 new cases of Covid-19 on Monday from 22,373 coronavirus tests  conducted across the country during the day, bringing the positivity rate down to 5.89% from 6.05% on Sunday. A total of 811 patients remained hospitalized and on ventilators.