Greece ‘s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Monday evening that vaccination against Covid-19 is mandatory for specific professions and that indoor spaces of venues will accept only vaccinated citizens until the end of summer 2021.
“Those who don’t get vaccination will not lead the country to new horizontal restrictions,” the prime minister warned.
Regarding the mandatory vaccination, he argued that it’s not possible to take care of vulnerable people or immune-compromised patients and not be vaccinated against the pandemic.
In his address to the nation, Mitsotakis announced the following measures:
As of August 16, those working at facilities for elderly people will be suspended if they haven’t receive vaccination
From September 1, vaccination will be mandatory for doctors and health care personnel in public and private sector.
Military personnel and conscripts will be given incentives to get vaccinated at their duty bases.
From Friday, July 16 until end of August only vaccinated people will be allowed in the indoor spaces in restaurants, cafes, bars, clubs, theaters, cinemas and other entertainment venues.
“There will be no mixed spaces for vaccinated and not vaccinated citizens,” Mitsotakis said officially putting an end to the previous plans of the government and the epidemiologists’ alleged recommendations.
“Greece is not in danger, unvaccinated Greeks are,” the Prime Minister said.
He called on citizens to “wear a mask when we are with other people, even outdoors” although based on recent government decisions the mask outdoors is not necessary.
Several government ministers incl of health and development will clarify on Tuesday the measures announced by the Prime Minister.
Mitsotakis spoke of “optimist messages” coming from the tourism industry reaching 50% of 2019 and praised tourism as “the development vehicle of the Greek economy.”
Greece is experiencing a
resurgence of the pandemic with daily infections between 2,000-3,000 in the last 10 days. More details about coronavirus in Greece
here.
PS Note that outdoor spaces in venues are mixed, that is for both vaccinated and unvacicnated people.
Not all unvaccinated refuse a jab because they are anti-vaxxers. Some cannot due to medical reasons by doctor’s advise and some are simply afraid due to mixed messages regarding the side-effects.
Tell us your opinion in the POLL below, please.
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So it starts. Enjoy the incoming totalitarian commie nation. Could’ve just used Ivermectin and common sense but no, violating human rights is more fun. Sad to see the country I once loved so much to become this. I’m one of the lucky ones who have the option to leave but not happy about having to use that option
you sound a lot like me. greek born abroad who sacrificed my best years and my life’s savings to come back to greece to try to make a life. even served in the army. and theyre doing everything possible to destroy the country. i too have an option to leave and as much as it pains my heart to do so ive begun the process to move away.. waiting on a visa for the spouse. starting all over again from scratch in another country is a rough deal but im afraid those of us who leave will be like those who got out of the east bloc before the curtain fell.
I have been vaccinated against covid 19. I can still catch it and can still spread it. I have absolutely no problem with mixing with people that for whatever reason have refused to have the vaccination. It is their choice..a free choice in a free world..at least..in the western world. I do however have a problem with those people who choose not to have the vaccination by personal choice that become so ill that they require medical treatment and put the lives of medical staff, and their families at risk and use up medical resources that would be better employed elsewhere. These people are self centred to the point that that they have little or no consideration for those people that surround them. For every action there is a reaction. Unfortunately in their case the only reaction will be a negative one.
i have not once in my life asked for or recieved so much as an aspirin from the medical establishment. over the years paid enough in three different countries to cover probably half a dozen other peoples’ lifetime expenses and not taken a cent back. I’d happily sign a contract that made 100% certain that i would never set foot in any public hospital. for that matter if for some reason i ever ended up in a public hospital i’d pay extra to get the hell out of there asap! i will never be a ‘burden’ and i’ve paid way more than one person’s share over the years. and spent it all trying to build a house and lands here to keep the life in our native village alive for another generation. i inherited nothing. and it looks like they want to turn my country into a gigantic prison now. there’s only room for corporations, tourists , and menial servants catering to the first two. doesnt matter if we’re greek or not, might suit them better if the help has no rights as native or citizens. this is not left versus right. ND is as conservative and christian as is syriza liberal – it’s a fake choice. we are ruled by international bankers and corporations now. but they’re really taking it to the next level here, with almost zero resistance from anyone. the people in czechoslovakia or hungary did not ask to be taken over in 56 or 68 either, but it happened. anyone who got out before the gate slammed shut left his home behind but avoided living in a giant prison camp for the next 30 or so years.
and this is much worse than an expat’s comfy retirement in a sunny country going sour, this is the home of my ancestors going back thousands of years. yes, my parents left. i came back.. and now i am again preparing to leave.
I presume you will feel the same about smokers and those obese people due to eating to excess. They put far more strain on health services
Make up your mind Ian. You don’t have a problem with people making a free choice until you do have a problem a few words later.
Imagine being alive in 2021 with this mindset that totalitarian behavior is exclusive to communist ruling parties, when you are literally describing the policies of a pro free market, officially orthodox, and Conservative party with a parliamentary majority in Greece. I’ve got a word for you my friend, its fascism.
It all falls under the concept of statism where the state is more important than the individual. Whether communism, fascism or socialism at the end of the day the goals of the state trump your rights to anything…
If that’s what they meant then that is what they should have said. But they didn’t. They said “commie”. Which goes to prove that the ones in charge have clearly been successful in conditioning society against the “bad words” on the left. People don’t even know what socialism, communism, anarchism, etc. truely mean; they just know those words and concepts are “bad” and thus they feel confident in using them within that frame.
All words have lost their meaning as of late anyway.
They want our sovereignty. Know your rights and know your Bible, its the best advice I can share, we are living in a beast system.
And all this while some people who want to be vaccinated await there temporary amka numbers
Or even worse: refused a temporary amka without any arguments.
So oncer again ex-pats living permanently in Greece and contributing to the Greek economy are, once again, to be classed as SECOND CLASS CITIZENS by ther Greek Government.
We waited months for our temporary AMKA’s, we had our vaccinations and Greek Governmental beaurocracy is still unable to provide us with the certificate to confirm we are vaccinated.
€60 every time we want to leave, return of change islands and now we will not be allowed into any indoor venue until they finally decide they have upset enough of us AGAIN !!
I and other people I know are in same situation, what is unbelievable and annoying is that the Temporary AMKA numbers were issued to us, they had all our details to do this, they sent both SMS and emails reminding us of the vaccination appointments, sent SMS to say our vaccination was completed, hence they know we had 2 jabs and yet REFUSE to recognise the AMKA number so we can’t get the certificate, and any communications from them are no reply…equals no help!
The Prime Minister is trying to encourage people to get vaccinated yet IGNORING those, such as my Sister and her Husband who are desperate to get vaccinated but are still waiting for TEMPORARY AMKA numbers. Again no help forthcoming from KΕΠ or any official site.
Such a system is called apartheid… the general separation of a society because of a specific reasons.
Reasons were in past…. race like jews and others…. religion….
and now vaccination.
What are the next steps?
History teaches… separation was followed by discrimination, followed by progrom, followed by holocaust.
Separation has been ordered in Greece now, discrimation has begun, Mitsotakis called the unvaccinated “freeriders”. The governor of Peloponese called them “asocial”.
What is next?
Greece, quo vadis?
If most of the new cases are almost exclusively young ppl, and the new measures are in response to this new trend in high cases in young ppl, they don’t seem to match. Young ppl aren’t in indoor cafes and restaurants, etc, much. What I’m saying is that I don’t think the new policies will have the desired result. I feel like the delta variant will burn through the young ppl like a wildfire, until they themselves create immunity through their recovered antibodies.
As for needing to show an ID and vaccine certificate to go eat indoors, who will be doing the checking? Will every store have to hire a security guard to check, interrogate for authenticity, and remove those who shouldn’t be there? I can’t imagine a restaurant waitress doing that. Security checks is a whole different domain. So going out will be like going to the airport!