How Greece Slipped into the Coronavirus' Second Wave

Greece had set an example of curbing the spread of the new coronavirus in the first few months of the pandemic, while other European countries had disturbingly high numbers of infected citizens and deaths.
But it wasn’t just in the early days that Greece performed diligently in containing the spread of the virus — it managed to flatten the curve all the way through the end of July, although the country had opened its doors to foreign visitors at the beginning of that month.
Yet in the past two months or so, beginning at the end of July, there was a frightening upward spike in cases culminating in three record highs at the end of September — early October.
In fact, the second wave of Covid-19 is actually much worse, as the peaks of the first wave are less than one third the size of the same peaks in the second wave.

Despite the fact that the daily figures of infections and deaths are still significantly lower — proportionately — than in other EU countries, experts in Greece, as well as government officials, are alarmed.
Experts explain that there are several factors that have increased the spread rate of Covid-19 in the past two months.
The first factor was the opening of Greek borders to foreign visitors. Since tourism is one of Greece’s most important industries for bringing in revenue, it was expected that tourist inflow this year would inevitably bring Covid-19 along with those much-needed tourist euros.
Travelers began coming to Greece, reluctantly, in July. In the first month of tourist arrivals the “imported” coronavirus cases were in the low two digits. In August, the numbers were slightly higher but August is also the month when Greeks traditionally go on vacation.
Seeing that despite the influx of tourists in July the spread of Covid-19 was light, Greeks let their guard down in August and began to not comply with the preventive measures implemented by the Greek government.
Scenes of crowding on popular Greek islands like Mykonos and Zakynthos in August were very common in the summer, despite repeated warnings by health experts. Authorities shut down popular night clubs on Mykonos and imposed short lockdowns and curfews.
Upon the return of vacationers to the major urban centers of Athens and Thessaloniki in September, impromptu private parties began to spring up all over Greece after bars and nightclubs were forced to shut down at midnight.
It is no wonder, then, that one half of the daily cases reported by the National Public Health Organization (EODY) in the past month or so have been located in the Athens metropolitan area.
Scenes of crowding by mostly young people in squares in Athens and Thessaloniki became the norm throughout September, with police issuing fines left and right. It was only natural, however, that after months of lockdown in the Spring people would try to make up for lost time in the summer — especially the younger ones.
Also, during the summer, when the Covid-19 figures were at very low levels, the much-loved epidemiologist Sotiris Tsiodras stopped his daily briefings on television — perhaps making Greeks feel complacent, as if the coronavirus had gone away.
Finally, a minor factor which nevertheless contributed to the second wave of the Covid-19 outbreak was the arrival of migrants from the island intake centers to the mainland. Several of the cases reported were infections which occurred inside the new hospitality centers on the Greek mainland.