More countries added to ‘travel corridor’ list, including Turks and Caicos

Holidaymakers due to travel to Greece this week are growing concerned that the country will go back into lockdown as it experiences a surge in coronavirus cases.

Direct flights from the UK to the popular holiday destination are due to resume on Wednesday but authorities are now considering the reintroduction of stricter lockdown measures. UK travellers have taken to social media to ask their airlines and tour operators whether their trips will be affected. 

But Noel Josephides, from operator Sunvil, said it was “business as usual”. “There has been increased testing at land borders and, as a result, more cases have been found and stopped at land borders. Flights are unaffected,” he said. 

There are now more active infections in Greece than at any other point during the pandemic – 2,236 people in Greece are known to have the virus right now.

On Friday, 60 people were confirmed to have contracted the virus, the highest daily number since April 21; on Sunday the number had fallen to 31. More than 100 new cases reported in the last fortnight have been among incoming tourists.

Government spokesperson Stelios Petsas told local media: “We knew from the beginning that when we gradually opened the country’s gates to the world, we would have imported incidents.”

He added that he is “determined to protect the majority from the frivolous few.”