Piraeus Bank, one of Greece’s biggest banks that is also a lender to shipping, announced on Thursday it evacuated part of its Athens headquarters after one employee there contracted the Covid-19 virus.
The entire Piraeus Bank building at 4 Amerikis Street in central Athens will be disinfected on Friday, the lender said in a statement.
Piraeus Bank employees working on the same floor as the virus victim were ordered to work from home for the next 14 days, the statement added.
TradeWinds has learned that the case does not concern Piraeus Bank’s lending department, which is in a different building in another part of town.
Business in general will remain unaffected, Piraeus Bank said.
The employee who contracted the virus is the wife of a senior executive at shipping company Kyklades Maritime. The Kyklades executive himself tested negative. The shipping company's staff were told by medical advisors working for the Greek government that they were not considered to be at risk.
Kyklades management nevertheless ordered a general disinfection of its building. Staff who felt uncomfortable were allowed to go home for the day.
"Kyklades continues to monitor the situation very closely, applying the guidance of Greek health authorities and is taking precautionary measures," company director Aristeides Alafouzos told TradeWinds.
"Our principal concern is the health and safety of our staff and their families," Alafouzos added.
The Piraeus Bank employee is believed to have contracted Covid-19 in Italy, the hotbed of the disease in Europe. She is just the third case reported in Greece. The first, a woman who had travelled to Italy as well, was detected on 26 February in the northern port city of Thessaloniki. On Thursday it became known that her son also contracted the virus.
As a further fallout of the Piraeus Bank employee case, authorities ordered the shutdown on Friday of the Athens College, where her children go to school.
Several shipowners and executives send their children to the prestigious institution, which is the alma mater of big industry names, such as George Economou and Petros Pappas.
This article has been updated since its original publication to include information about Kyklades Maritime and the Athens College
