ATHENS, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- Mobile units of Greece's National Public Health Organization (EODY) started conducting COVID-19 testing in three central squares of Athens on Friday, as authorities implemented additional measures to contain the spread of the virus, focusing on the Attica region that encompasses the capital city.

The region where the bulk of Greece's population lives has had to cope with an increased epidemiological burden in recent weeks. About half of the new cases reported daily in Greece are diagnosed in Attica, officials said.

Out of 286 new infections confirmed on Friday, 163 were registered in Attica, Gkikas Magiorkinis, a professor of epidemiology who participates in the committee of experts advising the Greek Health Ministry on the management of the COVID-19 challenge, told a regular press briefing.

Between the morning of Sept. 26 and Oct. 4, all liquor stores, mini markets and kiosks will have to be closed from 12 midnight until 5:00 a.m. in Attica as well as in ten other regions with an increased epidemiological load, Nikos Hardalias, deputy minister for civil protection and crisis management, said at the same press briefing.

Hardalias reiterated that Greece was far from a nationwide full lockdown like the one imposed in spring for over a month.

In the past few weeks, the authorities have been tightening restrictive measures on the regional level and have urged people to respect the precautionary measures, such as using face masks indoors and outdoors in crowded places.

According to the EODY, Greece has confirmed 16,913 COVID-19 cases since Feb. 26, when the first infection was identified in the country. The number of fatalities stands at 369 after three patients have died in the past 24 hours.

Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias, the ministry's chief expert on the novel coronavirus Professor Sotirios Tsiodras, and EODY President Panagiotis Arkoumaneas visited on Friday one of the mobile units that carries out rapid tests in the center of the Greek capital.

"The Ministry of Health and the National Public Health Organization, based on the heavy epidemiological burden in the municipality of Athens, act with a plan using mobile units in the districts of the municipality so that we can control the epidemiological load," Kikilias told Xinhua and other local media.

"This will continue during autumn and winter, wherever necessary in Athens, in its neighborhoods, in the region of Attica and throughout Greece," he explained.

"The strategy for controlling the virus focuses on laboratory testing, the tracing of contacts of those testing positive, the isolation of the positive cases, and quarantining their contacts. This is the main strategy currently being followed around the world," Tsiodras said.

As the world is in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries across the globe -- including China, Germany, Russia, Britain and the U.S. -- are racing to find a vaccine.

According to the website of the World Health Organization (WHO), as of Sept. 25, there were 189 COVID-19 candidate vaccines being developed worldwide, and 40 of them were in clinical trials. Enditem

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