From the day in March 2020 when Coronavirus was first detected in Greece, the Greek government had decided to take strong measures to prevent any sort of public gathering. Not only were all kinds of schools, colleges, courts, offices, courts shut down, but the festivals that are even an integral part of their society were canceled.
This led to a huge uproar from the Greeks, as they first denied the government’s orders and were furious at hearing that they won’t be able to celebrate their favorite festivals. However, unlike many other countries in the world, the Greek government has succeeded in keeping things under control, and they have flattened the curve to a great extent.
Greece was supposed to be decimated by a coronavirus. This is a country that’s visited by millions of tourists each year, so there were billions of scopes of the virus for entering the country. Not only that, but the majority of the Greek population is composed of the elderly, and we know that the senior citizens face a greater risk when it comes to COVID-19.
And the economic downfall of Greece isn’t unknown to many. Even now, according to Greece-Nadlan anlysts department, Greece has a 40% smaller economy than it had back in 2008. After consecutive bailouts, Greece had to sacrifice a lot of resources, leaving it with only 560 ICU beds in the entire country. Greece is a country with a population of 11 million. 560 ICU beds for that population means that there are only 5.6 beds for every hundred thousand people!
As you can see, people weren’t wrong when they predicted that Greece would be hit very hard, but surprisingly, Greece could cope up, and somehow, they managed to brace against the impact of Coronavirus.
Surprisingly, as of the moment when this article was written, Greece had a total number of 15,142 cases and 338 deaths. 338 deaths sure seem to be a lot, but when put in perspective, you’ll understand how this country, limited by resources and medical facilities, performed compared to others that had a far better scope of controlling this crisis.
Italy is a neighboring country of Greece which has a population of 60.36 million. Till now, Italy had a total of 298k cases and 35,707 deaths. Turkey, another neighboring country that shares a border with Greece, has a total of 303k cases and 7,506 deaths! The impact of Coronavirus in countries like Singapore signals how this virus can grow even in the most developing and aware countries.
Thus, we understand that we can learn a lot from Greece. This is how Greece is battling Coronavirus and flattening the curve:
How Greece Flattened the Curve:
If we analyze the decisions taken by some countries and cross-reference that with the cases and death rate of Coronavirus of that country, we shall see that countries that have taken the decisions faster are in a safer position than the countries that delayed making a decision. Of course, there are other factors such as, what decisions were taken, how strongly they were implemented and maintained, etc. However, this is a basic factor.
The faster a country could respond to the incoming situation, the better they could control the outbreak. Here, Greece surely deserves credit. Around the end of February 2020, the carnivals were canceled. Although there was an uproar at the initial stage, the government succeeded in persuading the crowd.
Around the 10th of March, schools and colleges were all closed. This happened when the detected cases in the entire country were only 89. Three days later, all the public places, tourist spots, cafés, and restaurants were closed.
It’s easily understood why they took this step hastily. They identified that their main weakness was its medical services. As we’ve said earlier, Greece doesn’t have a lot of resources when it comes to the health sector, and Coronavirus would’ve decimated them completely as they lack the scope for helping their citizens recover and recuperate.
The government had understood that prevention is their key to survival, and they made the decision that would keep them standing tall even when their surrounding countries were devastated. Outbreaks smaller than that of Italy was enough to destroy Greece. At that time, the death rate became one person every two minutes.
If we compare the lockdown speed of Greece with the UK, we’ll understand how fast they had taken the steps. The Greek government had restricted public places, schools, colleges, and universities during the beginning of the second week of March. On the 23rd of March, a lot of transports were restricted as well. On the same day, the UK first declared lockdown. By that time, they already had confirmed cases of 6,650, and a death toll of 335.
To inform and educate their citizens, the Greek government aired a television show every day at 6 p.m. This show informed them how the situation of that time was, why they implemented the strict procedures, and what the aftermath would be if the rules weren’t maintained.
Another step taken by the Greek government is that they tried their best to increase the medical facilities available for the citizens. The number of ICU beds were increased to 910 from 565. Again, an agreement was signed between the public hospitals and the private hospitals that, any patient who doesn’t show the symptoms of COVID-19 will be received by private hospitals so that the capacity in the public hospitals increase for treating coronavirus patients.
Economic Sacrifice:
Greece is combating the coronavirus pandemic pretty well. However, this is surely coming for an expense. The Greeks are sacrificing their economy in return for good health.
As we all know, Greece already had a failing economy even before the pandemic. After the virus has hit the world, some of the most important sectors of Greece were badly affected. These are international shipping, property business, and tourism.
The property business is badly hit by the pandemic. Recently, the real estate business of Greece was becoming a growing prospect for foreign investors. Moreover, as Greece has a huge tourism sector, the properties used to be rented in short term.
As the tourism sector is frozen, so is the property business which is heavily dependent on their tourism sector. The property business sector attracts a lot of foreign investors, and in turn direct foreign investment. It must be mentioned that the property business sector provides a huge chunk of the total FDI of Greece. As this major sector is frozen, a lot of economic loss is mounting up.
Conclusion:
The Greek government is doing its best to combat the present global crisis, and they’re doing a great job at it. Greece has a far flatter curve than any other country surrounding it, which is amazing especially if you consider their little resources.
However, even as they’re keeping their health at a check, they are sacrificing their collective economy. It should be appreciated that they’re making the sensible choice here, and not thinking about the temporary suffering to come.
