Greece as the little country that could is emerging as one of the key narratives from the coronavirus pandemic.

Following similar reports in a number of international media outlets, in a recently published article, the New York Times has highlighted how the country long seen as the black sheep of Europe due to its financial crisis has now become one of the continent’s most positive stories.

“Greece has defied the odds,” the article quotes Kevin Featherstone, director of the Hellenic Observatory at the London School of Economics, as saying.

The article, written by Iliana Magra, begins by noting the many headwinds Greece faced from the outset of the crisis – namely having one of the oldest populations in Europe (second only to Italy), and having seen its health system hit by years of austerity due to the financial crisis.

Yet even with these challenges, as the article notes, Greece’s response was much swifter and thus more effective at containing the disease’s spread than the response seen in other European countries:

“…experts agree that the country’s decision to quickly enforce social distancing measures and fortify its ailing health care system helped curb the outbreak.

“On Feb. 27, a day after the country’s first Covid-19 case was diagnosed in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second- largest city, the government canceled the annual Carnival. On March 11, it closed down schools. Two days later, Greece limited nonessential travel and closed down cafes, restaurants, libraries and museums, among other places.”

While the article notes that the number of confirmed cases may be low in Greece in part due to relatively low levels of testing, the fact that the country has been far more successful in managing the crisis to date than others is clearly seen in the low number of deaths. The Times article compares the death toll from the virus in Greece (138) with that of similarly-sized Belgium (7,331).

Key to Greece’s successful handling of the crisis, the paper notes, was the government’s reliance on science, with Sotiris Tsiodras, an infectious disease expert, being given a lead role in shaping the response to the pandemic. Recent opinion polls show he has become one of the most popular figures in the country.

Health officials have also sought to make the most of the time bought by the early imposition of lockdown measures. Per the Times:

“Beginning in February, Greece worked to quickly increase its intensive care beds by more than 70 percent and recruited 3,337 additional hospital staff members, said Vassilis Kikilias, the health minister. It has also opened up 2,500 more hospital worker positions and plans to hire 942 additional doctors, a spokesman for the ministry of health said last week.

But perhaps most importantly, everyday Greeks have risen to the challenges posed by the virus and ensuing lockdown, responding to the restrictive measures with notable discipline and composure, upending simplistic stereotypes about the national character.

While the road ahead remains long and treacherous, developments to date mean that Greek citizens now have a new source of national pride:

“Some Europeans did not hold us in high esteem,” said Costas Hatzopoulos, 54, an agronomist who is also in Thessaloniki. “We’ve proved them wrong.”