Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday announced a scientific research initiative for the “epidemiological study of SAR-CoV-2 in Greece through extensive detection tests of the virus and of antibodies, sequencing viral genomes and genetic analysis of patients."
The Prime Minister discussed the initiative via teleconference with scientists representing 10 large research institutions in Greece that will be working together on this initiative which is funded with 2.5 million euros and managed through the Development & Investments Ministry and the General Secretariat of Research & Technology.
With Greece's outstanding scientists "it is very important for Greece to have such a program" and contribute to the fight against the virus, Mitsotakis said, thanking the professors leading it (Manolis Dermitzakis and Vassilis Gorgoulis) as well as Sotiris Tsiodras, spokesman of the novel coronavirus task force at the Health Ministry.
Research institutions include the University of Athens Medical School, the Academy of Athens, the National Research and Technology Centre, Dimokritos, the Pasteur Institute and others.
Specialists include geneticists, histologists, epidemiologists, biologists, hospital doctors and others.
The teleconference was also attended by ministers and officials of the premier's office.
