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Photo: EPA / DIMITRIS TOSIDIS
Life in Greece just doesn’t work. From November of last year until today, only grocery stores (butchers, bakeries, groceries), supermarkets, mini-markets, pharmacies, gas stations, fast food “take away” and stores that have delivery are open. Everything else is closed and the situation is not even close to that of Serbia – says Ivana Stanojevic, who has lived and worked in Thessaloniki for many years, and who is also the administrator of the Facebook page “Live from Greece”.
She explains that in Greece, at the moment, you can only get out by sending an SMS, with the “famous 6 codes”: for a doctor, a supermarket, a bank, help for someone who needs it urgently, recreation and a pet. walk. These are the only justifiable reasons for obtaining a permit, with a time limit of 2 hours.
“In the first wave of spring, there really wasn’t a living soul on the streets, the cities were deserted. Now people are already trying to use various ways to get out, although the fine is 300 euros in case you do not have an SMS and 2 hours have passed since you sent it. As of yesterday, they have introduced an additional restriction: you cannot go to the supermarket or walk more than 2 kilometers from your home, and the curfew has been introduced from 7 pm to 5 am. The exceptions are Thessaloniki and Athens, as they are huge cities, and here on weekdays the curfew starts at 9 pm ”, explains our interlocutor.
The Greeks applied the so-called “click away” system around Christmas for a week, and then other retail stores were able to serve customers. This principle means that customers can order something through the electronic store or by phone, and the store sends them a confirmation by email or SMS, and then they go to collect the products in front of the premises.
In that case, only card payments were allowed, but there were also interesting “anecdotes”. For example, it happened to me that on one occasion I paid for merchandise in advance with an online card. When I got to the store they told me that they did not have the code that I asked for that product, but they did have something similar. I decided to take it, but that product cost 1.5 euros more than the one I had already paid for. They did not accept me to pay the difference in cash ”, affirms our interlocutor and adds that this model was soon abolished, because it did not work well.
Then in January, stores were opened in Greece for a week, which could be visited for 2 hours.
“It was immediately abandoned, because the crowd was huge.”
Two weeks ago, the “click” principle was restored, only to be abolished again yesterday in most parts of the country, including Thessaloniki and Athens, according to Ivana. It remains only to buy in bulk or electronically, and all this also applies to service activities. For now, the decision is that this system is valid until March 16.
No trace of tourist
When asked if there are tourists in Greece, our interlocutor laughed.
“What kind of tourists, here we cannot go from one city to another, except in special cases!” It operates only a very small number of hotels, mostly large, because they cater to people who come for business, ”he explains, noting that no one knows when everything will end, and it is speculated that it could be around Easter, on May 2.
Carnivals, which take place at this time of year, and are otherwise very important events in Greece, have already been canceled, and the opening of tourism is generally expected after Easter, but only if the epidemiological situation is favorable. – “and no one can predict”
“Regarding the prices of the accommodation, I have received calls from people who say that their owners have raised the price this year, and I also know some of my colleagues. However, I believe that these are sporadic cases and that any increase in prices in the hospitality industry this season is not a realistic option ”, comments Ivana.
He believes that prices for off-board services should not change significantly compared to previous years, although it is not yet possible to guess.
As our interlocutor tells us, the Greeks do not react too violently to the measures and restrictions introduced. Resentment can only be felt in the last two months, but there is still the majority’s confidence that this model works.
What bothers them the most is that the use of public areas for recreation is also prohibited: open gyms, walking paths and even playgrounds with swings and seesaws.
“My opinion is that this system is still going on because the Greeks are an old nation and they have a lot of old people that they fear. All middle-aged people have living parents who are between 80 and 85 years old, so there is that fear. In addition, the Greeks did not go through what we went through, so their dose of fear is much greater than with us Serbs, and I think it is important that we have not yet had a serious massive spread of the epidemic here, “says Ivana . and states that, in the worst case, there were 3,000 infected in seven days, and during the spring, Greece had fewer than 5,000 infected in three months.
It says that 50-60,000 crown tests are performed daily across the country, so it stands to reason that there are 2,000-2,500 positive tests.
Kurir.rs/Blic
delivery courier
Author: delivery courier
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