ATHENS — Visits to detention centers and jails are restricted and prisoner transports to hospitals are prohibited except for serious cases, the General Secretariat for Counter-criminal Policy, at the Civil Protection Ministry, said on Thursday as part of measures to stem a new wave of coronavirus infections nationally.

In a memo, Secretary General Sophia Nicolaou said that all jails and detention centers have to ban all visits to the facilities except for relatives and lawyers, whose visits must be limited in number as much as possible.

In addition, no food or clothing may be brought in to prisoners by visitors, while detainees and prisoners should only be transported to hospitals or for outpatient services only if their case cannot be handled by a facility's doctors or health center.

Nicolaou also urged staff to wear masks and observe all health measures.

She told Athens-Macedonian News Agency that there was a 120-bed space in Korydallos jail, Piraeus metropolitan area, that had been set up in March for potential coronavirus cases.

"We hope that it will remain unused in this potential second-wave outbreak of the novel coronavirus," she said, adding that an outbreak in any jail "would have incalculable consequences."