The next 10 days in Greece are crucial for the implementation of COVID-19 restrictions, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a teleconference with the leaders of Austria, Denmark, Norway, the Czech Republic, Australia and Israel.
A COVID-19 vaccine should not lead people to relax the measures insisted by experts, Mitsotakis said in the teleconference.
Specifically, the meeting was held between the leaders of countries that had managed the first wave of coronavirus with success.
Referring to the positive news from the vaccine front, the prime minister spoke about the need to coordinate its distribution and the technical specifications that this entails so that the population can be vaccinated as soon as possible.
Mitsotakis informed about the epidemiological course in Greece and the exponential increase of cases and the pressure on the health system, which led to the imposition of a lockdown for three weeks.
He stressed that the next 10 days are crucial and that the goal is for the measures to pay off.
The leaders exchanged views on the situation in their countries and discussed the increase in cases, especially in Europe, with the result that many countries have imposed either severely restrictive measures or a lockdown that leaves part of economic activity and schools in operation.
The conference was attended by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, Australian Minister Prime Scott Morrison and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
On Monday, Pfizer announced its experimental vaccine was more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 based on initial data from a large study, a major victory in the fight against the pandemic.
Greek-born Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla stated that “today is a great day for science and humanity” and he is “very happy.”
“But at the same time, sometimes I have tears in my eyes when I realise that this is the end of nine months, day-and-night work of so many people and how many people, billions, invested hopes on this… I never thought it would be 90%” he added.
