Greece and Cyprus Spectacular in Handling COVID-19 Pandemic

In Greece, at its peak, 129 new cases were reported on April 7. New cases per day have since fallen precipitously. From April 12-20, new cases per day were 33, 31, 25, 22, 15, 17, 11, 10 and 10, respectively. And COVID-19-related deaths from April 11-20, in this country of nearly 11 million, averaged only 1.6 per day.

As Time Magazine noted in today’s article titled How Greece Avoided the Worst of the Coronavirus, "The coronavirus outbreak in Greece should have been a disaster...The country’s population is the second-oldest in the E.U. (behind only Italy), its health sector has been ravaged by austerity, and its crippled economy is still nearly 40% smaller than it was in 2008, before the last global financial crisis.”

In Cyprus, at its peak, 58 new cases were reported on April 1. There, too, new cases have fallen precipitously. From April 14-20, new cases per day were 33, 20, 20, 15, 11, 6 and 5, respectively. And in the entire country of Cyprus, from April 3-20, COVID-19 accounted for only 1 death every six days.

These numbers are particularly impressive when Greece and Cyprus are compared to other European travel destinations. The numbers as of April 20 were:

"If Hellenes in America and around the world make their fellow citizens aware of Greece and Cyprus’ remarkable safety record, as the world begins to emerge from this terrifying pandemic, our fellow citizens and the people of Greece and Cyprus will benefit greatly,” said Andrew Manatos, CEO of Manatos & Manatos.