Medea snowstorm blanketed Greece and forced the suspension of the COVID-19 vaccination plan

The cold and snowy storm Medea continues to hit much of Greece, particularly the capital region of Attica, where the health authorities had to cancel the planned covid vaccination.

Civil protection has asked all workers in Attica early in the morning to avoid leaving their homes before ten in the morning, after heavy snowfall that fell overnight and reduced road traffic.

Firefighters are constantly taking emergency calls from drivers, whose vehicles have been trapped in the snow so as not to wear chains. The use of chains is compulsory in practically all suburbs of the capital and even in some areas of the center.

Vaccination suspended

A first notice stating that the vaccination campaign would be delayed until 10:30 am (08:30 GMT) had to be updated and was finally suspended for the whole day of Tuesday, which the government of conservative Kyriakos Mitsotakis wanted to avoid at all costs. .

In anticipation of the storm, civil protection had organized a special device which provided for the reinforced activity of snowplows around health centers and, if necessary, the transfer of patients to vaccination points.

However, this special operation was only planned for rural areas and should not be necessary for the capital.

Traffic collapse

Heavy snowfall in Athens forced the suspension of train, tram, metro and bus traffic in the wee hours of the morning. Problems also persist in maritime traffic, due to the strong winds which blow in particular in the Aegean Sea with gusts exceeding 100 kilometers per hour. For this reason, all the roads of the three ports that surround the Hellenic capital have been suspended. In the center of Athens, the weight of the snow caused the fall of small or parched trees.

Medea is the worst snowstorm in Greece in over a decade, not only because of the amount that has fallen, but also because of freezing temperatures which have reached 22 degrees below zero in some mountainous areas in the north. In some parts of the country, there have been power and water outages, such as on the island of Evia, where some municipalities have been without electricity for three days.

While in the north and center of the country the phenomena have weakened, Medea will continue to hit the Aegean Sea at these times, and snowfall will reach the Cyclades Islands, as well as some mountainous areas of the island of Crete. In the north of the country, frosts will persist, but snowfall will not, and meteorologists predict the situation will start to improve as early as Wednesday.

KEEP READING:

Intense winter storm sweeping through the United States kills two in Texas

Images of the immense snow that crosses the United States and leaves millions of people without light