Greece detects four cases of fast-spreading Covid variant among arrivals from UK over Christmas
All are being looked after at dedicated hotel as fears grow about highly transmissible mutation
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Your support makes all the difference.Four passengers who arrived in Greece from the UK over the Christmas break have tested positive for the new, highly transmissible Covid variant.
The cases are the first of the fast-spreading coronavirus mutation to be found in Greece.
“The four persons recently travelled to Greece from Britain,” an unnamed health ministry official said. “They are in quarantine.”
The group were among a total of six UK arrivals – five Greek citizens and a Briton – over the Christmas holidays to test positive for Covid.
All are being looked after at a dedicated hotel while their condition is monitored by Greek health authorities.
Cases of the new variant were confirmed following three days of tests and analysis.
Authorities in Athens announced 40 deaths and 262 new coronavirus infections on Saturday.
Greece, which started its first vaccinations last week, has reported 140,099 confirmed coronavirus cases and 4,957 related deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Dozens of countries have banned entry to arrivals from the UK in an effort to stop the spread of a mutated version of coronavirus discovered in Kent last year. A separate South African variant of the disease is also causing alarm.
The UK variant has been confirmed in countries as far away as Japan and Australia.
Greece accepts flights from Britain but passengers must provide a negative PCR test result within the last 72 hours and take a further rapid test on arrival. If the result is negative, arrivals must self-isolate for 10 days and then undergo a fresh PCR test in order to exit quarantine.
The strict travel measures come after Greek authorities implemented a national lockdown which is in place until 6am on 7 January.
This includes a curfew between 10pm and 5am, obligatory use of facemasks including in outdoor public spaces and a ban on non-essential movements.
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