“We must reactivate our national vaccine, which is nothing more than our ‘philotimo' and together we must follow the measures indicated by the experts and I am sure that if we do we will emerge victorious from this difficult battle as well”, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed during the televised covid-19 conference on Wednesday at Maximos Palace.
The PM left open the possibility of taking further measures, if and where deemed necessary, based on the epidemiological picture.
“We are at a critical juncture in the battle that we have all been waging together since February, state and society, against the coronavirus pandemic. We are seeing a significant increase in positive cases in recent days, which, however, differs substantially from the first wave of the pandemic and this is of course something that worries us”, Mitsotakis said.
“We must say that the increase in cases is mainly due to the relaxation of compliance to the measures within our country in July. And I believe we all have a responsibility for it. Only 10% of cases are imported, most cases at the moment are domestic,” he continued.
Greece reported 124 new coronavirus cases in the latest 24-hour reporting period, of which 24 are from incoming travellers.
Geographical distribution of new cases:
This raises the total number of cases to 4,973.
1,349 are considered to be related to travel from abroad and 2,497 are related to an already known case.
“We had stated very clearly in the announcements made at the end of April by me and the members of the government and by all those in charge that the plan for the next day is not a plan to leave the public health and the financial crisis, nor is it a simple plan to return to some normalcy. Normalcy as we knew it until February and until the scientific community discovers the vaccine, but also the necessary treatment protocols, does not exist. That is why no complacency is justified,” Kyriakos Mitsotakis underlined.
Thirteen individuals are in ICU. Their median age is 70 years, while a 69.2% has an underlying health condition or are aged 70 or over.
The country’s pandemic death toll remains at 210.