KRANIDI, Greece – Tests for COVID-19 found 177 residents in the tiny town of Kranidi were clear of the Coronavirus after 150 were found infected among refugees and migrants being housed in a hotel there.

Greece’s state-run broadcaster ERT reported the news and said the tests included police officers who may have come in contact with the infected refugees, the biggest outbreak among that group among more than 100,000 in the country in centers and camps.

The results were anxiously awaited to assess the spread of the virus in the local community and the wider region of Ermionida, which had already been placed in quarantine when the first infections were confirmed.

Deputy Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias said test results showed that 150 people at the refugee hotel, including many single-parent families, had been infected, although none had developed any symptoms of the disease.
Two children, aged 3 and 6, who tested positive were taken to the children’s Paidon Hospital in Athens and a 19-year-old man was being treated in the hospital of the town of Rio with high fever.

Speaking from the region, Hardalis reassured the public, “Everything is under control” and that the hotel that has been in lockdown will be supplied with food and other necessities by local services.

A total of 497 samples were taken in the Kranidi area, he said, of which 150 tested positive to the virus. Two were members of international aid groups at the facility. All positive cases exhibit no symptoms of COVID-19 disease, Hardalias said, while the rest of the area is under curfew from evening to the next morning, daily for the next 14 days. No open-air markets will be allowed during this time, he said.