The Health Minister has quarantined the Kokkinotrimithia-Pournara reception centre for asylum seekers after a scabies outbreak and entrance and exit from the centre is prohibited except for the entrance of new arrivals.
Under the decree access is restricted to employees there. Entrance and exit is also permitted by exception for humanitarian and/or medical or other serious reasons such as access to the court, following permission from the Interior Ministry.
The decree notes the state’s responsibility to protect public health. The current quarantine is imposed in order to prevent the spread of scabies which has infected a number of residents at the reception centre, it added.
This will allow measures to be adopted to prevent the spread of scabies to other residents at the centre and outside it, as well as to treat those who were infected.
The decree was issued yesterday afternoon. CNA reports that about 30 people are being treated for scabies after being examined by a dermatologist. They have been isolated so as not to infect others.
Scabies is infectious through contact and the use of common use items, but its spread can be contained and scabies can be treated promptly as infected individuals display evident symptoms, it added.
