Greek PM: “Let philotimo be our national vaccine” against coronavirus

Greece’s Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, on Wednesday sent a message against careless behavior and complacency in regard to the COVID-19 preventative measures, while stressing the importance of wearing masks.

The Prime Minister led a teleconference with key officials on the assessment of the coronavirus pandemic, in light of the alarming increase in cases in the past few days.

“We must reactivate our national vaccine, which is nothing more than our philotimo, and together we must adhere to the measures proposed by the experts,” Mitsotakis stated during the teleconference.

The Prime Minister underlined that Greece is at a crucial point as “we can see a significant increase of positive cases but one which is, however, substantially different from the first wave and this is something that troubles and worries us.”

Mitsotakis attributed this recent rise in infections to the fact that his countrymen have let their guard down, easing up on the preventive measures they so dutifully followed during the first months of the pandemic.

“The increase in cases is mainly due to the relaxation of compliance measures within our country in July. And in that I believe we all are responsible. Only ten percent of cases are imported; most cases at the moment are domestic,” he said.

Mitsotakis added that, at this stage, it was unclear how long people will be obliged to live with the coronavirus but ‘complacency is not justified.’

“We had stated in a very clear way… that the plan for the next day is not a plan to get out of the health and financial crisis, nor is it a simple plan to return to some normalcy,” the Prime Minister said.

“Normality as we knew it until February, and until the scientific community discovers the coveted vaccine and the necessary treatment protocols, does not exist. That is why no complacency is justified.”

The Greek leader concluded by stressing once again the importance of wearing a mask in enclosed spaces and even in outdoor places where social distancing is impossible.

“We all wear masks indoors but (we should) also in open spaces where it is not possible to keep the necessary distances. The mask must now become our permanent companion, like our keys, our sunglasses, our cell phone. We avoid mass gatherings and entertainment in places with large crowds.”