Greek COVID-19 cases hit record as new curbs kick in

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece reported 935 new infections of COVID-19 on Saturday, a fresh daily record, as further restrictions to deal with a new wave kicked in for high-risk regions.

In Athens, home to half the population, people were largely complying with new rules from Saturday for worst-hit areas, including mandatory mask-wearing in outdoors spaces and no movement from 12.30 a.m.-5 a.m.

"On the one hand they are right, but on the other hand they overdid it. There are a lot of restrictions," said pensioner Nikos, wearing a black mask in central Athens' Syntagma square.

"The measures they took were taken late, and they didn't take measures to disperse young people gathering at squares," added Antonis Marietis, sitting on a bench.

Lockdowns have already been imposed in two regions in the north, Kozani and Kastoria.

Greece has recorded significantly lower numbers than most other countries in Europe, though cases started to rise in early October as testing increased.

Five more deaths were registered on Saturday, health authorities said, bringing the total to 564, many of them elderly and more than 95% of them with underlying health issues.

Greece has reported 29,992 infections in total.

(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou and Vassilis Triandafyllou; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)