The hospitality industry has been hard-hit by COVID-19 and restaurants around the world are suffering as a result of restrictions and #stayhome campaigns.
Greek restaurateurs from around the country joined their European counterparts in a protest rally on Tuesday night. Demonstrations began at 8pm with empty chairs set up at Syntagma Square in Athens, in Chania and Heraklion, Crete and at other central Greek cities, including Patras and Larissa.
In Chania, chairs and a table were set up at Yiali Tzamisi Square at the city’s Venetian Port at 7.30pm, whereas in Heraklion hundreds of chairs were set up outside the town hall at Lion’s Square with a distance of 2 metres apart from each other and forming an SOS.
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More than 1,200 chairs were set up at Georgiou Square in Patras. A local union representative told the Athens News Agency that there were 3,000 businesses affected by the coronavirus restrictions.
The Greek National Federation of Restaurants and Related Professionals (POESE) had announced on Tuesday that they would participate and called on the government to support the sector which faced permanent loss of businesses.
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The Greek government approved a partial lifting of lockdown measures this week, including the opening of take-out places. Dining areas are still shut to the public though the government is considering allowing food places to offer outdoor seating provided social distancing is kept.
In Greece there was one death in the last 24 hours and 21 new confirmed cases. The Greek Health Ministry’s coronavirus spokesman Sotiris Tsiodras said that 11 of the 21 new cases were detected at an army facility, raising the total of COVID-19 infections to 2,663.
