Nikos Hardalias

Mobile units of the National Organization for Public Health (EODY) will conduct rapid antigen tests in large industrial units in the northern regions of Xanthi, Drama, Pella, Florina, Pieria and Imathia in the coming days, amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.

Authorities and health experts are closely monitoring the course of the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic as it unfolds around the country with increasing concern, both in terms of the suffocating pressure it is exerting on the National Health System and its dynamics in areas outside major urban centers, such as Pella, Pieria, Grevena, Drama and Serres in northern Greece.

Amid an upward trend in coronavirus infections, Greek health authorities Friday announced new restrictions aimed at curbing the virus' spread while Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis appealed to young people to show greater caution following reports of overcrowding at nightclubs and concerts.

Deputy Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias is expected to announce curfews on the popular islands of Spetses, Paros and Antiparos, in an effort to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus, according to a Greek news website on Friday.

In an apparent bid to underline the government's determination to contain any localized outbreaks of the coronavirus following a recent spike in cases, Deputy Minister for Civil Protection Nikos Hardalias and the government's special adviser on the coronavirus crisis, epidemiologist Sotiris Tsiodras, traveled on Friday to the northern Greek regional unit of Xanthi with a team from the National

Deputy Minister for Civil Protection Nikos Hardalias and the government's special adviser on the coronavirus crisis, Sotiris Tsiodras, were traveling to the northern Greek region of Xanthi on Friday with a team from the National Organization for Public Health (EODY) following an outbreak of Covid-19 cases.

As the number of infections from the novel coronavirus showed a sudden increase in the past few days in Greece, health authorities are resuming their daily public briefings in a bid to alert Greeks to the risks of relaxing safety measures.

Nikos Hardalias, the Deputy Minister in charge of Civil Protection and Crisis Management, has travelled to Thessaloniki to oversee preparations for the reopening of the city's Makedonia Airport.

Greek health authorities will run hundreds of molecular tests on residents of the wider area of the regional unit of Xanthi, northeastern Greece, starting on Thursday, as part of a targeted plan to eliminate "continuing infections in the last few days," General Secretariat for Civil Protection announced on Thursday.

In an emotional farewell speech on Tuesday, Greek infectious disease professor and Health Ministry spokesman Sotiris Tsiodras announced that the televised live briefings on the developments with the novel coronavirus in the country will wind down at the end of the week and be replaced by weekly statements.