Greece aspires to restart tourism on May 14: minister

ATHENS - Greece aspires to reopen tourism on May 14, as long as the epidemiological situation allows it, Tourism Minister Harry Theoharis said Tuesday.

The country schedules a test run of safety protocol during April, welcoming visitors from European Union (EU) member states and countries like Israel, which have progressed significantly in their mass vaccination programs, the minister said, according to an e-mailed ministry press release.

Greece will open its gates to tourists provided that they have either been vaccinated, have antibodies or a negative COVID-19 test, the Greek minister said when addressing online the ITB Berlin 2021 international travel trade show.

Moreover, visitors could be subjected to random testing, and any quarantine or hospitalization costs will be covered by the Greek state, he said.

Despite the unprecedented challenges, some 6 million travelers visited Greece in 2020, Theoharis noted. In recent years, over 30 million people visited the country annually.

On Tuesday the National Public Health Organization (EODY) confirmed 3,215 new coronavirus infections and 46 deaths in the past 24 hours.

To date, Greece has a total of 209,462 confirmed cases since the first one was diagnosed on Feb. 26, 2020 in the country. Fatalities now total 6,843.

More than 1.1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far, with about 370,000 people having received both doses.

As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in an increasing number of countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.

Meanwhile, 261 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 79 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain, and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on March 5.

在这张2020年9月8日的档案照片中，游客进入希腊克里特岛赫拉克里翁机场的候机室。[图片/机构]雅典——希腊旅游部长哈利·特奥哈里斯(Harry Theoharis)周二表示，只要疫情允许，希腊希望在5月14日重新开放旅游业。根据该部的一份电子邮件新闻稿，该国计划在4月份进行一次安全协议的测试，欢迎来自欧盟(EU)成员国和以色列等国家的游客，这些国家的大规模疫苗接种计划取得了显著进展。希腊将向游客开放大门，前提是他们已经接种疫苗，有抗体或新冠肺炎检测呈阴性，希腊部长在柏林2021国际旅游贸易展上在线发言时说。此外，游客可能会接受随机测试，任何检疫或住院费用将由希腊政府支付，他说。西奥哈里斯指出，尽管面临前所未有的挑战，但2020年仍有约600万游客前往希腊。近年来，每年有3000多万人访问这个国家。周二，国家公共卫生组织(EODY)在过去24小时内确认了3215例新的冠状病毒感染和46例死亡。迄今为止，自2020年2月26日希腊确诊第一例病例以来，该国共有209，462例确诊病例。死亡人数现已达到6843人。到目前为止，已经注射了110多万剂新冠肺炎疫苗，大约有37万人同时接种了这两种疫苗。随着世界努力遏制这一流行病，越来越多的国家正在接种已经授权的冠状病毒疫苗。与此同时，根据世界卫生组织3月5日发布的信息，世界各地仍在开发261种候选疫苗，其中79种正在德国、中国、俄罗斯、英国和美国等国进行临床试验。