The Greek government on Sunday urgently announced that the country's up-until-now general secretary for civil protection, Nikos Hardalias, has been upgraded to deputy minister of civil defense and crisis management, essentially grouping under his mandate all state coordination to deal with the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
Hardalias' portfolio will include wide-ranging responsibilities and jurisdiction, while directly answering to Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
In a related development on Sunday, police and security forces in the country continued to clamp down on squats and make-shift accommodations used by third country nationals who have entered Greece as would-be asylum seekers or in a bid to reach other European destinations as irregular migrants.
A total of 85 foreign nationals were detained in an Athens Polytechnic auditorium and taken to the aliens' bureau in central Athens for identification.
The group were reportedly living in extremely squalid conditions within the specific university premises, where only the architecture and final arts faculty are now located.
So-called anti-state activists and self-styled anarchists had assembled third country nationals at the specific site after police raided and evacuated a number of squats in downtown Athens over the recent period.
