ATHENS – Although the restriction measures to contain the Covid-19 pandemic are extended from April 27 to May 4, “the next phase will be the gradual return to normalcy,” Civil Protection Deputy Minister for Crisis Management Nikos Hardalias said on Thursday.

During the daily briefing with infectious diseases professor Sotiris Tsiodras, Hardalias said that relaxing the measures would then proceed in two phases in May and June, in two-week increments.

He noted that every day remains difficult, referring indirectly to earlier events, when coronavirus cases were identified at private clinics in the south and western suburbs of Athens in the last 20 hours.

Among other updates, the minister noted that a section of the Roma community in Nea Smyrni, central Greece, and other areas in the region where coronavirus infections were located will continue to remain in lockdown until April 30.

In Thessaly, all open-air markets that were shut down will be able to operate as of Saturday (April 25), as the quarantine period will be completed. In addition, Mesopotamia community in northern Greece will complete its quarantine on Friday.

In Kranidi, the Argolid area, the second batch of tests taken (177) were all negative for coronavirus, but the area will keep its curfew. A coronavirus outbreak in a hotel hosting refugees in the area is on lockdown as of April 16.

The pandemic has been subsiding in Greece, he said, “but the war is not yet won.”