ATHENS – Main opposition SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras on Monday contacted Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Ieronymos on the telephone and urged him to take steps to help prevent the spread of coronavirus through churches, SYRIZA announced.

According to the announcement, Tsipras “encouraged the Archbishop to take initiatives so that the Church of Greece contributes, through its behaviour and work to the common effort of the whole of Greek society to contain the spread of the coronavirus.”

Party sources later said that the Archbishop appeared to be deeply concerned but determined to “take on the responsibility that he, however, considers the state should have long ago assumed – in other words, to announce the suspension of all religious services and not just those of Orthodox churches.”