"We stand at the side of our fellow human beings that have lost their loved ones and extend our hand to them," President Katerina Sakellaropoulou said in a statement on Good Friday after attending a memorial service for the victims of COVID-19 in Greece.
The service was led by Archibishop of Athens and All Greece Ieronymos at the church in the Athens 1st cemetery and attended by Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis.
"The time of the pandemic was very hard on our society, we already mourn many dead," she said.
"This sad reckoning becomes even harder at the thought that the victims of the pandemic passed away without a comforting caress from their loved ones, without the comfort of a last farewell," the president added.
"With today's memorial service...we feel and share the pain [of those that lost their loved ones], with the hope that the love of these days will assuage the pain of loss and give them strength and courage," she concluded.
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