Greece on Monday recorded its first positive tests for coronavirus in weeks, with the majority of the cases being tourists.
Of 43 people who tested positive, 36 were tourists, health authorities reported. Twenty of those tourists came from Serbia, according to Greek state radio (ERT). The remaining 16 tourists came from various other countries, ERT reported.
Since the country was opened again to tourism on July 1, over 100,000 holidaymakers have entered Greece via the Bulgarian-Greek border crossing, local media estimate.
Greece on Monday morning temporarily closed its borders to Serbian citizens in response to the rapid rise of COVID-19 cases in the Balkan country.
Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic described the decision as "unfortunate."
"The decision will be periodically reviewed by Greece ... we hope that other facts will be taken into account. It is obvious that Greece has an interest in foreign tourists coming and most tourists are just coming from Serbia," Dacic was cited as saying by Anadolu Agency (AA).
Tourist operators in Serbia have also expressed frustration over the decision, describing it as unfair and calling on tourist organizations in Greece to react.
Serbia currently has only 3,067 active coronavirus cases – out of 16,131 total confirmed cases, with a death toll of 311, according to data compiled by the U.S.' Johns Hopkins University.
On Sunday, 293 Serbian passengers in two different airplanes arrived in Turkey's southern coastal city of Antalya, as the country continues to receive Serbian tourists who want to spend their summer vacations on the seaside.
