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Mitsotakis indicates tough lockdown extension until mid-March

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis appealed to Greeks to continue abiding by the measures aiming to contain the spread of coronavirus and indicated another extension of lockdown. He called on citizens to be patient for another two weeks. The tougher lockdown in Athens and Attica was extended on Friday until March 8, 2021, while the soft version of restrictions is in force non-stop since November 7, 2020.

During an online conference on Monday, Mitsotakis stressed that he is aware of the tremendous difficulties faced by many, but said that “we must make one more push, especially for the next two weeks, so we can return to a state of normalcy not only for the economy and businesses but also for educational institutions.”

He stated his belief that we are near the end of the pandemic.

“We are in the final stretch, but how fast we get there will depend on the careful steps we take now,” he said. He emphasized that collective responsibility in conforming to the measures will be critical in re-opening the economy and ensuring it stays open.

When the time comes to gradually re-open the country, the government will provide “smart lockdown solutions and seek a new mutually beneficial agreement of trust with Greece’s citizens,” the prime minister underlined.

With regards to the vaccination roll out he said that by the end of the week over one million Greeks will have been vaccinated.

While acknowledging that the health system was under pressure, especially in Attica, he appeared confident that this was being handled well, with figures showing that Greece “continues to defend itself more effectively against the third wave of the pandemic, which now has the additional feature of a strain, the so-called British strain, which is a lot more contagious.”

 

More on coronavirus in Greece here.

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11 comments

  1. How about stop letting people from Europe come to Greece and not quarantine!!!! Checks for us but not for international travellers – makes no sense. “ESSENTIAL TRAVEL” but folk coming for jolly holidays !!! say what????

    • Hello Marina, actually, people from Europe have a 7 days quarantine.

      ” (…) after the 7-days self-isolation, they may continue with their holidays, adhering to the general public health safety guidelines.”

      More Info about the protocol here : https://travel.gov.gr/#/
      Have a good day’

  2. provide smart lockdown solutions? what kind of freak show is this?
    this man belongs in prison, or perhaps an insane asylum!

    • Concerned resident of Greece.

      Vaccination programme needs to be stepped up dramatically. It’s alright saying tourists can come to Greece if they have been vaccinated or have negative PCR. What about the residents of Greece who might not have been vaccinated or not had second dose by the time tourists start arriving?

      • I know. It’s so ridiculous.

      • Based on results in the UK, where the second dose is being administered only after 12 weeks, the first dose does give quite good immunity. About 60 % of recipients do not catch the disease at all and 80 % do not get symptoms severe enough to require hospitalisation. While a second dose will increase both those percentages that is a pretty good result for any vaccine. Based on all available measurements and the fact that the rate of vaccination is limited by supply, the UK made a calculation that it was better overall to vaccinate twice as many people, by delaying the second dose, even though each person would have a bit higher risk than to administer the second dose more quickly but leave half the people with no protection for longer. It looks like they made the correct choice.

        It is also worth noting that the AstraZeneca vaccine is producing good immunity in over 65s so they also made the correct call there.

  3. And what measures are smart, according to your opinion, a.citizen??? You are quick to say everything is wrong but you give no suggestions on what to do instead!

    • heres a suggestion: take the example of sweden. no ‘lockdowns’ , no restrictions on movement, no mask mania. Take further, the example of india (and also other countries including bulgaria recently): instead of shutting down even mere mention of any possible therapies to reduce the danger to the old and weak (the only people who have any real risk from such an illness), how about giving large doses of vitamin D to everyone over , say, 60, or indeed anyone who wants it? how about the well documented reduction in dangerous conditions or death, from the maligned (but dig a bit and youll see the malignment itself was quite sketchy and has been retracted) HCQ, or ivermectin, and zinc, and vitamin d. how about allowing people to make a living and go about daily life without constant fear of being pushed into starvation and debt over a fine for some insane ‘infraction’ ? or of pushing them directly into destitution because their job or business is now gone? you want to imagine what the lethality of poverty is? it’s a lot worse than any cold virus! how about not pushing round the clock hysteria to keep people living in terror? what does chronic stress do to a person’s health? how about instead of hiring more police, hiring more doctors?
      just a few suggestions. i’m sure others can think of some more quite easily. but i guess those in positions of power can only think of more dictatorship.

      • Sweden’s death rate from the virus is about double that of Greece, which hardly seems like a recommendation for its approach. I agree about Vitamin D, I’m taking that. It was determined this week that HCQ (Trump’s irrational recommendation) is potentially dangerous for covid patients. What’s so dreaful about face masks? It’s a harmless prophylaxis, leaving aside the question of pollution from all those discarded masks.

        The issue of long-term harm from poverty caused by the economic dislocation, and how that balances against deaths from the virus is a difficult one and it’s quite clear that a lot of people judge it according to whether they think their own lives are at risk or not.

    • The British strain is a lot more contagious? What a load of nonsense!! Like most governments stop scaremongering & frightening the public.

      • It’s not nonsense, the UK strain is widely recognised as being more contagious, which is why it is becoming dominant in many places as it can outcompete the original variant. It’s a normal evolutionary process for a more effective organism or virus to become dominant.