ATHENS: Tourism is not to blameworthiness for a surge of COVID-19 infections in Greece, the tourism minister said on Wednesday after the government reintroduced restrictions aimed at saving the summer season. The recent surge in Covid-19 in Greece is not linked to the reopening of the country to international visitors in mid-May, Tourism Minister Harry Theoharis said here. "The opening of tourism was done very carefully, in the first 10 days of July just 74 out of 105,609 samples taken at the country's entry points were positive, just 0.07%," Haris Theoharis told a Greek hoteliers conference.

This week, the daily number of confirmed coronavirus cases nationwide surpassed 3,000 for the first time in four months. In June, this figure had dropped below 500 per day, according to reports. Citing experts, the Greek government has attributed the increase to the highly contagious Delta variant, which finds fertile ground among the unvaccinated.

The increase in Covid-19 cases in Greece is not related to tourism," Theoharis on Wednesday stressed at an event dedicated to the future of hotels in Greece, pointing to the results of checks carried out at the country's borders. In the first 10 days of July, only 74 positive cases were detected in 105,609 random samples taken at the borders, ports and airports, he said.

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