The government is working for a controlled and safe opening of the economy and society with all the “tools” that science currently provides, Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister Akis Skertsos said on Wednesday. In an interview with Thema FM, Skertsos said regarding the lifting of the lockdown restrictions that “everything will depend to a large extent on vaccinations” and that discussion on lifting lockdown could take place in mid-May.
He added that the vaccinations plan is going well and underlined that there was a record rollout with almost 60,000 vaccines on Tuesday.
“We will have many more vaccines available in May and June so that the vaccinated population reaches 50-55 percent,” he noted.
“So the goal of immunity is coming closer and closer to us – and that is a key factor that will increase the degree of freedom in relation to the functioning of the economy, society, education,” he added.
Given this, “by Easter we will have exceeded 3.0 million vaccinations (since the beginning of the vaccination programme) and in May and June we will have even more vaccinations. From mid-May we can discuss a final lifting of restrictions,” Skertsos said.
He appealed to citizens for greater compliance with the protection measures.
At the same time, he criticized the voicing of disagreements among the health experts advising the government, clarifying that there is no dissatisfaction in the government with the committee. In addition, he called for more emphasis to be given to the positivity index rather than the absolute number of cases.
What a coincidence 1 Mid May opening torist season and suddenly after a never ending lockdown it’s possible to end it ? WOW !
Mid May? No sh*t? Maybe around the 14th?
Quote..He appealed to citizens for greater compliance with the protection measures……
Oh Yes.! And let the tourists do what they want!!! Money, money, money…..that’s all that matters.
And where do you think the money comes from? If you expect the money from EU fonds, you are wrong.
Furthermore if the Greek citizens are so compliant with this such severe measures, how come you are passing 4300 cases per day? (There is something very wrong that is being done even without tourists.)
This places Greece at the 200 incidence per 7 days. In comparison Germany has ~ 130 at the moment. It is quite realistic that Greece will end up as being Hochinzidendzgebiet in Germany, but there is always a chance that they will look the other way just as they did for Malorca, where they dropped from 398 to under 50 in just 2 weeks (4% vaccinated population).
And next winter it’s back to lockdown.
With the hospitals not able to cope now how come suddenly we open up for tourists..economy before lives….the islands cant cope with covid patients who become I’ll and they have to be sent to mainland but they are full..get vaccination centres open and vaccinate more daily..the uk has vaccinated millions using the army etc ..get a grip and mobilize the army….people move the virus round we dont need arrivals. Even the visitors to Crete who were clean when they arrived have at least one case positive and that is a small test run ..it does not work..stay closed a little longer
A 50 % vaccinated population with 70 % or so efficacy in preventing spread and the higher reproduction rate strain becoming the dominant one means that, if you want to keep Reff below 1, you can relax restrictive measures errr – back to about what they were during the first lockdown.
I’m sorry, but you are posting bad science here. R is a mathematical construct which requires a fixed, homogenous population. When you allow tourists in, there is no meaning for R. The theoretical models do not cope with tourists. End of discussion about R.
Of course, if you want to discuss the spread of the virus, then that is different. The virus will spread more efficiently with more tourists and especially with more infectious variants that they can import into Greece.