Open Letter to the Mayor

Dear Efi,
I appreciate very much your efforts, as mayor of Elafonisos, to follow the government instructions… but to be very honest with you, those measures for the safe of Elafonisiotes are not sufficient.

We have actually a quite old population in Elafonisos and they are at highest risk. Secondly, hospitals that can save lives are quite far from the island.

The justification that there is no case in Neapolis or in the surrounding area is unfortunately an illusion! That’s what was told all over the world… before it spread very quickly.

Up to now (hoping it is still true) they is no coronavirus case on the island. But this does not mean there will be no case in the future. I hope that Elafonisos will be forever a coronavirus-free island just by following the Greek government instructions. But you can not base your decision only on this hope. Many cases lately of islands have shown that only one or two infected persons entering an island can rapidly contaminate many other people after a few days (Mauritius island, and closer to us Ikaria and Lampedusa)

Before it will be too late, the only way to protect your population is to close the island 100%. I know that you will have many complaints. But what is it compared to the risk of announcing several deaths? You will have a clear conscience because you will take all possible decisions to protect the Elafonisiotes, versus stick to the governments measures that are right for Greece but for a small island like Elafonisos, you have the opportunity to go much beyond and save 100% of the inhabitants.

This mail is the expression of my heart because I love Elafonisos and all the Elafonisiotes… the idea is not to challenge you.. but to help you.

I understand that it is not easy to put in place an emergency plan to receive on the island the daily needs and respond to the different requests with no human entry on the island, but it is better than to put in danger the life of your population, which would be an irreversible disaster.

Thanks for your understanding, and take the right decisions and steps.

Enrico