Greece is successfully dealing with the second wave of Covid-19, PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Friday, announcing that authorities could ease some restrictions and reopen shops as early as next week.
Opening the debate in Parliament on the course of the pandemic, Mitsotakis was upbeat on thow the nation has nailed the crisis.
“Today, according to the ECDC map, the only two countries that are not marked red and have some green areas are Greece and Finland,” the Prime Minister pointed out, referring to the data and showing specific diagrams.
“The sharp increase in hospitalizations, which started in early November, was dramatic and peaked in early December, while it is now declining,” he said, adding:
“Our country is in 21st place, the 5th with the fewest deaths from the coronavirus among European countries.”
Greece “shows discipline”
“The successful treatment of the second wave is due above all to our health professionals,” Mitsotakis stressed.
He noted that this de-escalation in the course of the epidemic is due to the fact that, during the holidays — with a few exceptions — Greek society showed discipline in following the recommendations of the experts.
“It seems that we cleared the hurdle of the Christmas and New Year periods without much turmoil. It is also due to the political decision to impose a stricter lockdown in the last two weeks.”
However, as the Prime Minister stressed in his speech, “this positive course does not allow any complacency.”
“Every month of lockdown costs the Greek economy over 3.0 billion euros,” Mitsotakis said, adding that “for this reason it is the time to gradually take the risk of reopening the economy, as long as the experts advise in favor of this.”
Source: AMNA
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