ATHENS — Museums across the country will reopen on Monday after a necessary three-month shutdown imposed by health authorities against the coronavirus outbreak.

The Public National Health Organization (EODY) and the Ministry of Culture & Sports have collaborated extensively to ensure that a 2 meters indoors – 1.5 meters outdoors – distance among all visitors is observed at all times, alongside the mandatory use of protective face masks and an eight-people group tour maximum.

Acropolis Museum President Professor Dimitris Pantermalis told Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA) on Saturday that "the closure of the Acropolis Museum was not only unpredictable, it was a huge shock (…), but ultimately this downtime became rather creative." He said that a lot of maintenance work was carried out as were improvements in infrastructures and lighting, so that now "we are moving towards the opening of the museum completely renewed," he noted.

Director of the National Archaeological Museum Maria Lagogianni told ANA-MPA that "we want to ensure employees feel and actually are safe, but also that visitors can enjoy the museum knowing that their health safety is not at risk." Following the advice of health experts, strictly scheduling visits and controlling the flow of visitors is the best way to offer a safe tour in the museum, she underlined.