At-home help from municipalities being bolstered

Citizens whose age or state of health make them particularly vulnerable to infection with the new coronavirus will be receiving help from their local authority to tackle the day-to-day challenges arising from measures to prevent the spread of the epidemic, according to an Interior Ministry decision published on Tuesday.

The measure is aimed mainly at helping elderly residents not to have to venture from home to go shopping or replenish their medical prescriptions.

In a memo, Interior Minister Takis Theodorikakos ordered that municipal employees who have been temporarily relieved from duties requiring constant contact with the general public be put into the service of local "help at home" programs, which cater mainly to elderly housebound residents who do not have a caretaker to look after their needs.

Under the emergency measure, local authorities will have to...