ATHENS – Despite a number of warnings, Greeks violated COVID-19 health measures aimed at slowing the spread of the Coronavirus, resulting in police handing out 1,001 fines on New Year’s Day.

Police headquarters said officers conducted 57,498 inspections, including 13,159 at Athens International Airport to make sure citizens were not disobeying regulations that included limiting travel, said Kathimerini.

Some 806 individuals cited have to pay fines of 300 euros ($364.05) each, 249 in the most populous area of Attica that includes the capital and 107 in Thessaloniki in northern Greece, the country’s second-largest city.

Six people were also arrested in the New Year’s Day crackdown for operating businesses – most of them cafes or bars – in violation of lockdown measures, the paper said but no indication if there were fines issued of if they were shut down too.