ATHENS — Ηealth Μinister Vassilis Kikilias, the health ministry's expert on the novel coronavirus Sotiris Tsiodras, and the president of Public National Health System (EODY) Panagiotis Arkoumaneas paid a visit to the Athens neighbourhood of Kypseli in a special mobile unit that carries out coronavirus testing in the city's squares as part of efforts to contain the spread of the pandemic in the centre of the Greek capital.

In his statements, Kikilias reiterated what he had said yesterday about the existence of 900 active cases in the 7 districts of the Municipality of Athens, emphasizing that the mobile units are located in the capital's centre "so that we can control the epidemiological load related to vulnerable groups and our fellow citizens."

"We will make sure that this can be addressed in the context of the measures we are taking for Attica," he added.

On his part, Tsiodras stated that "the strategy for the control of the virus concerns laboratory testing and, following the tracing of contacts of those testing positive, the isolation of the positive cases and the quarantine of their contacts."

He stressed that "this is the main strategy currently being followed around the world. Naturally, since the epidemic exhibits great diversity (heterogeneity), it is a localised epidemic, it concerns local areas, therefore these actions must be intensified in areas where there is an outbreak. This is what's happening at the moment, and it is extremely important in limiting the transmission of the virus."