Migrants arriving at Greek island test positive for virus

Lesbos Island, Greece, May 13, 2020 – Two migrants who recently arrived from Turkey have tested positive for coronavirus on the Greek island of Lesbos, officials said Wednesday. Greek authorities are already trying to contain COVID-19  outbreaks in an Athens hospital and among a Roma community. The infected migrants, reportedly two African men who were asymptomatic, have been quarantined in tents in a coastal area far from the island’s overcrowded migrant camps, officials said. They were among a group of 51 asylum seekers from Afghanistan and African nations who landed on the island on May 6, a local police source said.

Any Greeks who came into contact with the group have so far tested negative.But 25 local residents and two coastguards have been quarantined as a precaution, the civil protection authority said. More than 150 people have died from COVID-19 in Greece, where the government is gradually reopening the economy after a six-week lockdown. Most retail stores opened this week, and secondary schools and open-air archaeological sites are scheduled to reopen on May 18. Private beaches are also expected to reopen on Sunday. Migrant camps remain under lockdown until May 21.

There have been confirmed COVID-19 cases in two camps and at a hotel on the mainland — although none in migrant camps on the islands, where the worst congestion occurs. There are over 33,000 asylum seekers packed into camps on the islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Leros and Kos, that were originally built to handle fewer than 6,100 people. Earlier Wednesday, state TV ERT reported 25 staff at Elpis public hospital in Athens had been quarantined after a patient tested positive for the virus. Four members of the hospital staff have contracted the virus, the federation of Greek public hospital workers said. Officials on Wednesday were also probing an outbreak in a Roma neighbourhood near the central city of Larissa, with 10 new cases in an area where contagion had also surfaced in April. Over 650 tests were conducted in the area on Wednesday, the civil protection authority said. Aris Psyhas, a Larissa city spokesman, said seven of the 10 cases were members of the same family. So far, 60 people from the Roma neighbourhood have tested positive and are quarantined in a local clinic, Psyhas told AFP.

AFP