ATHENS – The second stage in restarting the Greek economy begins on Monday, May 11 with the resumption of operation of new categories of retail outlets and 225,000 employees back at work, or 33 pct of the total whose work had been suspended.

With the second wave of reopenings at the start of next week, a total of 93,000 businesses, or 35 pct of the total closed by the state during the lockdown, will be back in operation. As Deputy Development and Investments Minister Nikos Papathanasis has noted, May 11 will see an additional 155,962 workers returning to their jobs, in addition to those that returned on May 4, or 22.5 pct of the total, and another 66,010 businesses, or 25 pct of those that were closed. The types of stores reopening will include:

– sound and video equipment outlets

– textile products

– glass and hardware

– carpet, floor and wall covering traders

– electric domestic appliance sellers

– furniture, light fitting and other household goods traders

– music and video recording

– toys and apparel

– shoes and leather goods

– cosmetics and beauty care

– clocks, watches and jewellery

– new and used goods traders

Also reopening their shops will be the following services:

– leisure and sports goods rental and leasing

– video and disc rental

– domestic and personal items rental and leasing

– shop in a shop stores

The reopening will be extended to street market traders of textiles, clothing, footwear and other goods, driving schools, betting shops and dieticians.

The reopening will be accompanied by strict rules and restrictions, however, with retailers allowed up to four customers in shops of up to 20 square metres, four people plus one for each additional 10 square metres in premises up to 100 metres square and 12 persons plus one per additional 15 square metres for premises exceeding 100 square metres. In shops with more than one storey, up to one person per 10 square metres per storey are allowed.

Shops will open at 10:00 in the morning (except hardware shops that may open at 7:00), those entering are required to maintain a 1.5-metre distance from others at all times and the use of face masks by staff and customers is strongly recommended, as well as avoiding use of lifts which are permitted to reach only 40 pct capacity. If there are escalators, lifts can be used only by the disabled, elderly or to supply the store.

Driving instructors and students are required to wear face masks and customers must first book an appointment.

For street stall vendors, they are required to have a minimum distance of five metres between stalls and only half of original vendors are allowed to set up stalls in street markets.