BRITS have started returning to Greece after the UK flight ban was lifted yesterday.
However, the majority of Brits will be tested for coronavirus on arrival – and if more than 40 people test positive, flights could be banned again, according to Greek media reports.
Around 6,000 Brits are expected to be tested by the end of the week as they visit the country for a long-overdue holiday.
More than 200 flights are expected from the UK this week, landing in popular tourist destinations such as Zante, Crete and Rhodes.
However, local media confirms that if as many as 40 people have the virus, flights are likely to be stopped between the UK and Greece again.
According to Greek newspaper Protothema: "The result of the mass testing […] will determine if Greek borders remain open, or not, to Britain.
"If the number and percentage of those found to be positive is low, and is limited to less than 30 to 40 cases then […] the British tourist market will remain open.”
If not, Athens would seal the borders and once again ban tourists travelling from the UK.
They continued: "The government won't hesitate, calculating that the cost of the risk of coronavirus spreading is much more important than any benefits to tourism in a year that is considered largely lost.”
Greece has kept cases of coronavirus low but has seen an influx since borders opened on July 1.
In a country with less than 4,000 confirmed cases since the start of the health emergency, Greek officials have reported around 500 new cases since borders opened.
Leading epidemiologists warned that if coronavirus cases exceeded “more than 100” a day, more measures would be imposed immediately.
"If there is a double digit increase and we see more than 12 to 15 people being hospitalised every day then we will know we are in a second wave," Dr Anastasia Kotanidou, a critical health care specialist.
Brits were initially predicted to return from July 1, but the UK flight ban was extended to July 15.
Greek authorities say they are ready to reimpose public and travel restrictions if cases keep climbing, warning that safety guidance for coronavirus is being frequently ignored.
Government spokesperson Stelios Petsas told local media that they were "determined to protect the majority from the frivolous few."
More restrictions – including mandatory mask-wearing – and other local lockdown measures are likely to be unveiled, meaning Brit tourists could be faced with a very different type of holiday to the one they may have imagined.
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