Essential businesses stay open in Greece lockdown

While some Greek business owners on Friday prepared to shut their shops as part of a looming coronavirus nationwide lockdown, for others it was business as usual.

The nation's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had announced earlier in the week that the new measure would come into effect at daybreak on Saturday and would last three weeks.

Under the new restrictions, people will only be allowed to leave their homes for work, physical exercise and medical reasons and non-essential businesses will be ordered to shut.

In Athens, Christos Lambropoulous' laundry and dry-cleaning shop is a business that has been deemed essential under government guidelines.

He said that it won't make much of difference whether his shop traded or ordered to close during the lockdown.

During the last lockdown in the spring, he saw a 75% drop in turnover.

However, trade at that time was very different for Vicki Gogoglou, who manages a motorcycle mechanic shop in the Greek capital.

She said her business performed well during the lockdown earlier in the year as drivers had time to bring their motorbikes into her shop for repairs.

On Thursday Greece announced a record 29 daily deaths and 2,917 new cases, bringing the total confirmed cases to 49,807 and the number of deaths to 702 in the country.

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