People who become infected with COVID while on holiday in Greece are no longer required to quarantine under a relaxation of rules.

Quarantine rooms at hotels for tourists with coronavirus are no longer mandatory, although the rooms can still be used if necessary, mainly for infected staff.

At the same time, the rule that residents with COVID must self-isolate for five days does not apply to tourists.

Infected tourists will be able choose whether they wish to remain in self-isolation and only for the number of days they have booked.

Tourists who have COVID will also be able to travel by ferry, plane or other means of transport as long as they wear a high-protection face mask (FFP2 or KNP2).

Epidemiologist Christos Hatzichristodoulou told online media website Protogon: “There was a lot of discussion about how to manage [COVID] outbreaks at tourist accommodation facilities, and we decided to enforce the rules that apply in other Mediterranean countries.

“The majority of countries in northern Europe have no measures in place to protect against the coronavirus,”

Greek Travel Pages said the new protocol specifies that holidaymakers who have COVID should inform the hotel, which will advise the National Public Health Organisation (EODY) and the holidaymaker will be advised to self-isolate.