ATHENS – While hoping for tourists to start coming in the spring, Greece for now pushed back a ban on domestic flights to Feb. 15 and for international flights to Feb. 22 to hold down the spread of COVID-19.
Under the restrictions, passengers flying to Greece must receive a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test 72 hours prior to their arrival and undergo random testing and all foreign travellers quarantined for seven days.
Travelers from the hard-hit United Kingdom will – despite a vaccination program there – still be required to take a rapid test upon their arrival, while flights from Turkey remain suspended, the civil aviation authority said, Reuters reported.
Most flights from non-European Union countries including the nearly-isolated United States are prohibited, with the exception of 10 countries including the UK.
On domestic flights, only essential travel is permitted. A second wave of the Coronavirus brought the total cases to 163,213 as of Feb. 7 and 5,951 deaths, almost a year after the pandemic began in earnest.