HOLD ON to your Balenciaga: Mykonos goes into 'lockdown lite', Mayor not thrilled

Smooth sailing for the one-percenter party people, but choppy waters for the rest

According to reports making waves in the Greek press today, due to a marked uptick of coronavirus in Mykonos, new measures have been announced by Greece’s Deputy of Minister of Civil Protection Nikos Hardalias in an effort to stem the outbreak. Here’s what they entail:

From today until July 26 a nighttime traffic ban will be in place. That means no traffic between the hours of 1:00AM and 6:00AM. (But would I advise taking on Mykonos’s serpentine backroads in those dark hours anyway? Uh, probably not..)

So: starting today at 6PM, music at restaurants and beach bars and such is banned, 24 hours a day, also for now until July 26. (There actually is an upside to that; the earplug-defying beats at hotspots like Nammos Mykonos going silent means you can focus more on the implications of your recent divorce, or how to pretend you can afford that $400 Balenciaga T-shirt in the window across the way.) Hardalias, who has to have one of the hardest jobs in Greece, has stated that the number of active cases of covid-19 in Mykonos have ballooned in one week, from 77 on July 7 to some 318 on Wednesday. As high season in the Greek islands is almost in full swing, this is obviously cause to sound the alarm.⏰

Is everybody happy about these measures? No. Americans need to understand that this is the equivalent of Washington handing down a set of restrictions for say, Beverly Hills. That wouldn’t go down to well with the store owners on Rodeo Drive, and in fact many shop owners on the Island of the Winds are already chomping at the bit. The Mayor of Mykonos, Konstantinos Koukas said in a Facebook post that imposing the rules even if just for 10 days in the heart of the tourist season “…is a misguided action which essentially shows a punitive attitude towards a society that, as far as possible, did what it needed to do to protect public health."

Interestingly, Koukas says that the temporary restrictions will incentivize tourists’ hoofing it to other islands, “which in no way will be effective in protecting public health." Meanwhile, other islands including Paros, Ios, Santorini and parts of Crete are also experiencing an uptick in cases as Greece like many other countries tries to stave off the so-called fourth wave.🌊😟

Koukas, who we like a lot, goes on his post to lament what he calls an “unjust” set of restrictions that unfairly penalize the “people of Mykonos and our visitors, the only ones in all of Greece, who will not be able to travel at night” and furthermore makes Mykonos “the only island where no music will be heard.”😟

Well, let’s hope for some of that signature blaring Mykonian bass come July 27: pending evaluation of the epidemiological situation and other complexities, the measures are set to expire 6:00AM Monday, July 26.😎

Photos courtesy Scorpios Mykonos, Facebook and Greek Column team. With additional reporting by Columnist Kostis. For the best hotel with private beach in Mykonos, we recommend The Wild by Interni. For coffee, Starbucks in Mykonos Town.☕