Government on red alert over Patras religious feast day as epidemic rages

By George Gilson

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis held consultations today with top members of the expert National Committee on COVID-19 just three days ahead of a potential super spreader event in the port city of Patras, Greece's third largest city and the largest in the Peloponnese with a population of 167,000 residents.

The 30 November feastday of the city's patron saint, Saint Andrew (file photo), annually draws enormous crowds of worshipers who pack the 2,000 sq m cathedral and masses of faithful fill a large radius around the church.

Mitsotakis has ratcheted up the pressure on the mayor of Patras, Kostas Peletidis, and regional prefect Nektarios Farmakis to cooperate in strictly enforcing public health measures and in get across the message that people should stay home and not congregate outside of churches, which have been closed by the government since the beginning of the current lockdown on 6 Νοvember.

Peletidis, however, noted that the celebrations are organised by the Metropolitan diocese and that the municipality is responsible only for the annual outdoors bazaar in the area surrounding the church, which will be banned this year.

Thousands of small merchants travel around the country all year shuttling from town to town peddling their wares on the eve of local feast days.

Bishop on board

Metropolitan bishop Chrysostomos of Patras called on the faithful in his diocese to stay home, but as was seen in the first lockdown priests have in many cases surreptitiously opened churches from side and back doors.

Moreover, it will be impossible to station a police contingent outside of all Patras churches and the last thing the government wants is clashes between police and faithful.

The...