The Double-Edged Sword of Living in a Small Greek Island in the Times of Coronavirus
Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, March 14th, 2020
Salaroche

The island of Paros, located in the Aegean Sea, in Greece, is not a magnet for tourists during this time of year. Usually, tourists begin visiting in considerable numbers by the beginning of May, then the numbers keep increasing until the end of August, when the numbers are already dwindling.

Having for the moment only a small number of visitors is a good thing for us residents of Paros, as the chances of having any contaminated individual landing on our shores is minimized to a good extent. That is the good edge of the sword.

The other edge is the fact that if ever a contaminated person came to Paros, there is a good chance that in a couple of weeks many of us residents may have already caught the virus or be already in the process of getting it. After all, the island has an area of barely 76 square miles and a local population of about 12,000.

Even before the W.H.O declared Coronavirus was a pandemic this past Wednesday 11, I had already been telling my Greek friends they should call the local authorities and ask them to start screening all the visitors landing at the ferry port and at the airport, regardless of their country of origin, including Greeks, as there have already been over 100 cases reported in the country and one death among them.

Our Greek brethren, however, are not people accustomed to grab the phone and call the police for any reason, on the contrary, they seem predisposed to avoid getting in contact with the authorities as much as they can.

So, when I present to them my request, they just shrug their shoulders and move on. Fortunately, there are only two ports of entry to the island, so that, whenever the authorities decide to take action, screening visitors will not be hard to do.

There are basically two ways to come to Paros, by boat or by plane. Ferryboats can come from a few different places like Athens, the island of Santorini, the island of Mykonos or a few other islands. Then there are a few private boats that may also come here from other different places.

The other way to come to Paros is by plane. There is only one small airport on the island and flights usually come from Athens on a regular basis. There are two airlines landing here, Sky Express and Olympic Air, both of them Greek. I have flown Olympic back and forth a few times between Athens and Paros, but I have never flown Sky Express.

The thing is, the Paros authorities would not have much problem avoiding contamination on the island, if only they started screening visitors right now. Once a sick person gets trough, however, and spends a few days shaking hands with the locals, sitting at bars and restaurants and exchanging money with the merchants, it will already be too late.

For the moment, the central government has already taken some action. A couple of days ago, at around 11 pm, we all got an alarm message on our mobile phones telling us to avoid mingling with others, wash our hands repeatedly and keep a certain distance from other customers at supermarkets, banks, etc.

But the alarm has already been raised in many other countries. Some Canadian visitors, for example, are cutting their holydays short and are returning home this coming Monday, which I think is a smart thing for them to do, as there is a good chance Trudeau may close all borders sometime soon.

I don’t intend to go back to California anytime in the near future, so I don’t have any problem of that sort, but if I did intend to go back, I would be in a bit of trouble because Trump just extended the travel ban to the UK and Ireland, which I was thinking could be my connecting points on my way to the US. As things stand right now, however, not many airlines will be flying to the US from either of those countries, so I will just stay put and enjoy my time here in Paros.

Local hotels and apartment rental agencies are also getting affected by the pandemic situation. Mr. Efthimios, one of the owners of the small apartment complex where I'm staying, told me this afternoon he had cancelled all the reservations he had for the months of March and April and was putting on hold any other rentals for the near future. Of course, that preventive measure does not affect me, as I have been living on the island for a little over a month and there is no one contaminated among us.

For the moment, therefore, my best choice is to stay exactly where I am until the whole situation changes for the better. Once the pandemic gets somewhat under control I will figure out what my next port of call may be. Fortunately, our days here in Paros are getting sunnier and temperatures are showing a clear tendency upward, so, as usual, things are looking rather good in my whereabouts.

…and the beat goes on…

Salaroche