Roma settlement of some 3,000 residents placed in coronavirus quarantine

Authorities on Thursday night put a Roma settlement in Larissa, central Greece, under strict lockdown after several residents tested positive for the highly contagious novel coronavirus.

The settlement, which has an estimated population of around 3,000, was placed under quarantine on the orders of the deputy minister for civil protection, Nikos Hardalias, at 11 p.m. on Thursday.

The decision to ban all movement into and out of the settlement came after health authorities ascertained that a 32-year-old man who tested positive for the novel coronavirus had come into contact with at least 31 other residents of the area. Of those, 17 had been tested by Thursday evening and 12 were found to be positive for SARS-CoV-2.

The incident "confirms the worst-case scenario," Larissa Mayor Apostolos Kalogiannis said in comments to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency, expressing...

Continue reading on: