The Greek government has announced that coronavirus restrictions in high case areas have been lifted, such as in bars and clubs.
Greek Health Minister Thanos Plevris stated that fully vaccinated people will also be allowed more freedom in indoor venues such as bars, where the establishments will be allowed to have standing room customers and music, as long as the bars are for vaccinated people only, rather than businesses that chose to register to serve both the vaccinated and non-vaccinated.
Overnight curfews and music bans, so-called mini lockdowns, that have been implemented in high case areas known as “red” zones, have also been eased and will require both vaccinated and unvaccinated people to simply use social distancing and wear masks, newspaper E Kathimerini reports.
Minister Plevris stated that the government was not considering any further restrictions for unvaccinated people at this time, saying: “There will be no additional constraining measures for the unvaccinated… The measures that exist for the unvaccinated are sufficient.”
“Where there are areas or places where only vaccinated people are located… people should have more normalcy. Beyond that, the mixed areas, the mixed spaces, are not intended to be punitive for the unvaccinated. The enemy is not the unvaccinated, let’s make it clear. The enemy is the coronavirus,” he added.
Last month, Greece introduced restrictions set to last until at least March 31st on people who are either unvaccinated or are unable to prove recovery from the coronavirus.
The rules also included vaccine mandates for all public and private sector workers or for workers to submit to weekly coronavirus tests which they must pay for themselves, costing €10 (£8.52/$11.83) each.
Staff in certain sectors, such as healthcare workers, have been mandated to have at least one dose of the vaccine since the start of September, though some have estimated that as many as 6,000 hospital employees have been put on suspension for not having the shot.