Greece Quarantines 2nd Migrant Camp after Coronavirus Case Confirmed

World

April 5th, 8:37am

Asharq Al-Awsat

A man wearing a protective suit and a face mask makes his way in the Ritsona migrant camp after authorities found 20 coronavirus cases, in Ritsona, Greece, April 2, 2020. (Reuters)

Greece has quarantined a second migrant facility this week after a 53-year-old man tested positive for coronavirus, the migration ministry said on Sunday. The Afghan man, who has a prior ailment, had personally sought help with virus symptoms at the in-camp medical facility. He was subsequently taken to an Athens hospital where he tested positive, and his family was quarantined. A full screening of the Malakasa camp is in process, the ministry said. The camp, 40 km (25 miles) northeast of Athens, had been placed under "full sanitary lockdown" for 14 days, with no one allowed to enter or leave. Police guarding the site would be reinforced to ensure the restrictions are implemented. On Thursday, authorities quarantined the Ritsona camp in central Greece after 23 tested positive for the coronavirus. It was the first such facility in Greece to be hit since the outbreak of the disease. Greece was the main gateway into the European Union for more than a million people fleeing conflict in 2015-16. More than 110,000 people currently live in migrant facilities across the country - 40,000 of them in overcrowded camps on five islands. No cases have been recorded in the camps on the islands so far. Aid groups have urged the government to evacuate them, warning the risk of the fast-moving virus spreading among people living in squalid conditions is high and containing an outbreak in such settings would be “impossible”. A separate closed-type facility started operating last month for migrants who arrived after March 1, the ministry said. Greece recorded its first case of the new coronavirus at the end of February. Since then, it has confirmed 1,673 cases of COVID-19 and 68 deaths. It has imposed a nationwide lockdown and banned arrivals from non-EU countries as well as Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2217616/greece-quarantines-2nd-migrant-camp-after-coronavirus-case-confirmed