The Greek government’s handling of the crisis has won the praise of many a foreign media outlet.
This time, the British Telegraph sings the praises of the country in a piece entitled “How Greece moved early and decisively to keep Covid-19 out”.
As the reports signed by Georgina Hayes points out, despite the country having “…all the trappings of a Covid-19 disaster waiting to happen” it defied all the ominous predictions and managed to come through the pandemic virtually unscathed.
From the Telegraph:
By all accounts, Greece has had a very successful – albeit unexpected – pandemic so far.
Indeed, as the UK now has the highest Covid-19 death rate per capita, Greece hopes to welcome foreign tourists from June 15. However, it has been suggested by the country’s tourism minister that Britons, along with those from the US and Russia, will face a longer wait before they can return to Greece because of our relatively high infection rate.
At the time of writing, Greece has recorded just 2,882 cases of Covid-19 and 172 deaths. In comparison, Belgium – with a population size similar to Greece – has reported 57,455 cases and 9,334 deaths.
Greece had all the trappings of a Covid-19 disaster waiting to happen: a decade-long financial crisis had weakened the country’s healthcare system, political instability and corruption reigned, and it has the second-oldest population in the EU. It was for these reasons that many experts expected Greece’s outcome to mirror Spain’s or Italy’s, but it managed to defy the odds.
“When the virus first emerged, the Greek health system was under-prepared to respond to a pandemic threat of this nature,” said Professor Elias Mossialos, head of health policy at the London School of Economics, co-director of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and adviser to the WHO and Greek Government on the pandemic.
“Had Greece not recognised its vulnerability and taken early and decisive action, it might be facing a very different situation today.”
read more at telegraph.co.uk
