GREEK VACCINE ROLLOUT

The centre-left party’s leader was highly critical of the government and the PM: 'Mr Mitsotakis cannot hide his enormous responsibilities behind the extreme and condemnable statements of members of the opposition,' he said,

'It is very important for us to abide by the [public health] measures – mainly wearing masks, being careful in our contacts, and being tested wherever and whenever necessary. It is even more important to be vaccinated.'

With one of the main criticisms of the government’s handling of the pandemic being lax enforcement of existing measures, Mitsotakis announced that authorities will intensify monitoring of implementation.

Tsiodras said that based on the models used in his study, the vax programme in Greece saved approximately 8,400 lives and avoided 5,560 ICU admissions and 5,530 intubations up until October 11, when the study was completed.

The final exit from the epidemic is now, and as autumn advances it is important to be vigilant and not to be lax with irresponsible behaviours on the individual and collective level, as this two year battle has been waged both by the state and citizens.

'The National Health System is under severe pressure in areas of northern Greece and the situation is difficult,' said Patras University Professor of Infectious Diseases and Pathology Charalambos Gogos, a member of the National Committee on COVID-19.

The government succumbed to the truly many pressures and impatience of citizens for the opening of the economy and society so that they could be freed from oppressive restrictive measures. The lack of preparation was revealed in autumn one year ago, when the second wave of the pandemic raged in Northern Greece..

The National Vaccination Committee’s president, Athens University Medical School Professor Emerita Maria Theodoridou, told a regular, televised news conference this afternoon that the data demonstrate the dangers for unvaccinated older people.

“We are in a transitional stage in which we must ascertain to what extent the third dose would be useful for the general population at this stage of the pandemic. It may possibly be useful if there is a flare up of the pandemic .This discussion focuses on reducing the RT,” Magiorkinis said

Precisely because the repercussions of the issuance of fake COVID-19 vaccination certificates are not limited to public health, but also touch on the social contract to which we have all agreed, the state has a duty to fully shed light on these cases.

In a damage control sprint, the health minister announced that there will be a 5,000 euro fine for healthcare workers or administrators who forge certificates or issue fake confirmation that an individual has suffered and recovered from COVID-19.

Even if one does not have legal training, one can comprehend that there can be no individual right that imperils the lives of others, because that would mean that we have anarchy instead of democracy.

In Greece, although the vaccine rollout began with enthusiasm in the spring, over time, and especially during the summer months, interest waned. That is mainly because of the emergence of a groundless and unscientific anti-vaccine movement.

The low percentage of vaccinated people in the Armed Forces and security forces must be a cause for concern for the government, The government spokesman has said that nothing has yet been decided. . Yet, other countries have already decided,

Given the fact that a large percentage of citizens are still unvaccinated, they must in some manner be protected from the highly transmissible Delta variant of COVID-19, which has stirred concerns among experts.

Greek experts have said that in order to build a strong wall of immunity to cope with the highly transmissible Delta variant of the virus, about 80 percent of the population must be vaccinated.

'Quite recently when I went to buy a cup of coffee, I heard a group of customers spewing opinions about the vaccine altering DNA, eschatology and the Book of Revelation, the largest clinical experiment in the world, and other such nonsense.'

The enforcement of measures that will be announced very soon by the government will not be easy. Restaurants and entertainment venues will be called upon to check whether customers have a vaccination certificate or have already fallen ill from COVID-19.

More rational citizens realised that the vaccines are effective, defeated fears, and greatly limited the prospect of grave illness from COVID-19. All around the world, vaccinated people feel more secure and free to move and act.

Making vaccination mandatory is an act of humanitarianism and an expression of moral duty and philanthropy toward our fellow human beings and ourselves.

There are major ideological and political differences between parties, but it is impermissible for them to leave room for the dangerous anti-vaccine current, even within the ranks of a certain party, as is the case in the main opposition.

Perhaps many people have not understood that we are at a delicate juncture in which we can move forward through the tunnel of the pandemic, but at the same time confront serious obstacles.

With its new variants the virus is again demonstrating its ability to harm. It disputes and renders conditional policies and plans for a return to normalcy, belying the expectations that are at times cultivated.

We are continuing to administer tens of thousands of tests (Greece is among the countries that conducts the most tests per million of population) both in random sampling and at points of entry into the country.

The over doubling of confirmed cases of the Indian variant (Delta) in just one week – 29 have been confirmed in random sampling, most of which are in Iraklio, Crete – is considered a small-scale version of actual transmission.