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Greece Shuts Border To Serbians After COVID-19 Spike

  Greece announced on Sunday the closure of its frontier for Serbian nationals until July 15 because of a coronavirus spike. Advertisement Serbia declared a … Continue reading Greece Shuts Border To Serbians After COVID-19 Spike

By Anthonia Orji
Updated July 5, 2020
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A street with shops near the beach in Pefkochori on Halkidiki Peninsula, Greece, on June 20, 2020. – One of Greece’s most popular tourism destinations, the Halkidiki peninsula provides hotels and apartments with around 100,000 rooms. Nearly 60 percent of business activity relies on the travel sector. Last year, some 1.5 million travellers visited the area, mainly from neighbouring Balkan countries. But for now, most of the resorts lie empty. And many operators dread an outbreak that would kill off their season for good. (Photo by Sakis MITROLIDIS / AFP)
A street with shops near the beach in Pefkochori on Halkidiki Peninsula, Greece, on June 20, 2020. – One of Greece’s most popular tourism destinations, the Halkidiki peninsula provides hotels and apartments with around 100,000 rooms. Nearly 60 percent of business activity relies on the travel sector. Sakis MITROLIDIS / AFP.

 

Greece announced on Sunday the closure of its frontier for Serbian nationals until July 15 because of a coronavirus spike.

Serbia declared a state of emergency on Friday in the capital Belgrade because of the highest rise of coronavirus cases since April.

Greece had made its decision after analysing the epidemiological data, said government spokeswoman Aristotelia Peloni.

Greece, which has suffered fewer than 200 virus deaths, has launched a promotional campaign to revive tourism, which accounts for a quarter of its gross domestic product.

Travellers are given scannable bar codes after they fill out a questionnaire with personal details such as their country of origin and the countries they have travelled through in the last 15 days.

Roughly 6,000 tests are now being carried out daily on travellers entering the country.

AFP

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