A sense of mutual trust is what professor Sotiris Tsiodras said he perceived when he visited the Roma camp near Larissa, central Greece on Friday with Deputy Minister of Civil Protection for Crisis Management Nikos Hardalias, where dozens of Roma people were infected with Covid-19 in a short amount of time.
Speaking at the daily televised briefing on the coronavirus’ course in Greece, the professor added that sustaining hygienic conditions in such camps is more difficult, and added that the Roma residents there "really embraced us and we felt like members of their community."
"I think they will help us in this effort, I trust them," he said and added that "these fellow citizens will not be left alone, they will continue to have equal access to the health system."
Addressing the Roma community, he advised them to maintain their responsible attitude, emphasizing that "we are together in this struggle."
He said that Roma people are among the most vulnerable groups across Europe, and it is often difficult to practice social distancing, as they live in adverse conditions with many people often housed together in confined spaces.
As the Health Ministry’s coronavirus spokesman, Tsiodras also said that returning to normality will take some time. Responding to a question on when would people be able to travel abroad again, he added that necessary preventive measures may still restrict travelling, even when the full ban is lifted.
Citing the recent example of some Asian countries which lifted travelling restrictions only to impose them anew a short while later to avoid re-importing the virus, Tsiodras said "there will be some going back-and-forth" regarding the certainty on travelling policies and related restrictions.
In the updating of statistics for the day, the doctor also announced 56 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Greece in the last 24 hours, and 4 new deaths.
The Covid-19 infections total in Greece stands at 2,011. Of these, 525 were infected abroad and 776 in Greece.
Deaths total 90 since the start of the outbreak, of whom 89 pct had underlying health issues or their average age was 70 or over.
Some 77 patients are being treated in Intensive Care Units. The average age of these patients is 67 years, 14 of these are women, while a 75 pct of all ICU patients have underlying health issues or are at least 70 years of age. A total of 15 people have so far been discharged from ICUs.
So far 35,432 diagnostic lab tests for Covid-19 have been carried out nationwide.
Ακολουθήστε το Business Daily στο Google news 
